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Bridge work begins; from sinkhole to roadway
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
POMFRET — Work has already begun on rebuilding the bridge on Needles Eye Road.
First Selectman Maureen Nicholson said the town crews reinforced the existing dam and are working on having the existing culvert lined.
The culvert is far below the road surface. The area from the top of the culvert to the road surface, 15 feet above, was filled with sand, possibly from the Murdock property about 70 years ago. A crack developed in the culvert and the sand flowed through the crack and into the flowing water, leaving a void that resulted in the sinkhole in the road’s surface July 22. Very little water has flowed through in recent years.
And that water, because of the crack in the culvert, was not flowing through the culvert; it was under the sub straight, she said. “It was coming out on the other side in places we didn’t expect,” she said.
Crews shored up the dam wall and a cutout in that concrete wall will redirect water to the culvert. A headwall will surround the culvert, providing more water direction, she said. The water will have no place to go but through the culvert.
The challenge will be that more exploration is needed between the road surface/sinkhole level and what’s below, toward the culvert. The reworked dam is finished and the town is waiting for the culvert to be lined. “We have to explore under the road — see how much erosion has taken place,” Nicholson said.
Depending on what’s found, she said the goal is to have it all done by the end of October.
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