A fix for Emmett: Granville talks temporary solution for roadway
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GRANVILLE - It's been just shy of eight months since Emmett Drive has taken vehicles from University Town Centre to W.Va. 19 and the Star City bridge over the Monongahela River.
For Granville Mayor Patricia Lewis, it's been a long eight months. She has previously said she fields calls almost daily from people asking why the town isn't doing anything to get the road reopened. She said that belief is nowhere near the truth.
Tuesday, she told Granville council members work was expected to start Wednesday.
"GSI mobilized today to address the rock slide on Emmett Drive," she said during the new business portion of Tuesday's regular council meeting. "We anticipate they will start work tomorrow. I don't have details about what they'll find, what they will do. Hopefully, by the next meeting, I will know more."
A rock slide forced the closure of Emmett Drive Feb. 27, sending all traffic to the Chaplin Road exit of the town center.
Granville has been working with representatives from West Virginia DEP's Office of Abandoned Mine Land, Potesta and Associates and GeoStabilization International (GSI) to come up with a solution.
Earlier Tuesday, Lewis met briefly with Joe Dinkel, project engineer/manager with Potesta and Associates, and learned GSI, a company specializing in emergency landslide repairs and rockfall mitigation, was ready to start work on a temporary fix - one that could allow the reopening of Emmett Drive by Thanksgiving.
"We went [Tuesday] morning to move blocks out of the way," Granville Public Works Director Roy Wilson told council. "They (GSI) had a bunch of stuff to move in. Now, we're just on standby."
At the Sept. 8 town meeting, council voted to approve $50,000 to $85,000 for GSI to make repairs. Lewis then said a walk-through at the site earlier in September found there were still rocks breaking loose and falling. Some were as large as 4-foot by 4-foot with one that was 20 feet by 7 feet by 6 feet. She said there was potential for a significant rock fall and that the roadway could not be reopened until it was addressed.
It is expected that the initial work by GSI will take about a week. After that, the town should know more about a permanent fix, which could take as long as two years to complete. Lewis said she hoped to have more to report at the next council meeting Oct. 27.
Granville is responsible for the cost of the temporary work, but it is still hoped the DEP will help with funding of a permanent solution. The town center was built on former coal mine property.