Town officials have completed the extensive documentation necessary to secure emergency aid from the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) for repairs to Pomfret Road and Caper Street in North Pomfret necessitated by a mudslide that occurred last spring in the early morning hours of Saturday, May 10.
During the destructive landslide, which followed more than a week of significant rainfall, a torrent of debris, rock, mud, and mature trees slid onto Pomfret Road, tumbling down from an embankment that runs along Caper Street to the north.
Pomfret Road is designated by VTrans as a “major collector” route serving travelers to and from Sharon, West Hartford, Norwich, and points beyond. Thanks to interim efforts by the local road crew, Pomfret Road remained open to two-way traffic throughout the late spring and summer of last year.
Work on a permanent fix to the areas impacted by the mudslide got underway on Sept. 10. Both roads remained one-way until the repair work by Avery Excavation Inc. of Williamstown was completed in early October.
At its regular bimonthly meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 21, the Pomfret Selectboard verified that the town, Avery Excavation, and the locally based Harrington Civil Engineers firm successfully completed the slide repairs in accordance with the VTrans emergency aid grant requirements. Actual expenses for the repair project totaled $620,015, selectboard chair Ben Brickner told his fellow board members last Wednesday. Brickner said that once VTrans reviews and okays the final expense report for the repair project, the town will be compensated through the emergency aid grant, with the state picking up approximately 96% of the project cost and the town paying the remaining 4% from its coffers.
For more on this, please see our Jan. 29 edition of the Vermont Standard.
