Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV
June 15, 2010
Picking up flood-torn pieces
DOH says road fix may take a month
By KATE COIL
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

WELCH — The West Virginia Department of Highways has estimated it may be a month before areas of Stewart Street in Welch are entirely repaired.

The branch of Stewart Street near Welch Elementary School was washed, with damage 12 to 14 feet across the street and around 200 feet along the length of the street. Barely a foot of the roadway was still remaining in some areas. According to the Highway Department, the gas is still out on the street though power and water have been restored.

“To our knowledge, there were no injuries,” said Arlie Matney, a crew leader with the West Virginia Highway Department. “We’re meeting with public utilities then we’ll get together with our operators and engineers to determine what would be best.”

Matney doesn’t know how long the road will be out of operation.

“I wouldn’t expect it to be a long time,” Matney said. “I’d be afraid to guess. We’ll put the river back to where it’s supposed to be. Our main concern is getting the river back to its natural course. All of the debris will have to be removed, new fills will be placed and compact, and then it will be repainted.”

According to Matney, Stewart Street is one of the hardest hit places by the flooding.

“It’s gonna be one of our worst spots,” he said. “There are several crews out working in smaller and hollow roads.”

Other members of the Highway Department were working to clean up the mud collected across the street from Welch Community Hospital on Stewart Street.

“We’re just getting the road open, get it clear,” said Jerry Jordan. “It flooded the hospital maintenance shed. We’ve been out here since 6:30 a.m. and we’ll be here until 9 p.m. There are two lanes closed down near the elementary school. We lost about the whole roadside. I say we’ll be working on this a month or more.”

Leonard Cooper with the Highway Department has been working on cleaning up Stewart Street since Sunday.

“This morning, the water was up to the top of the underpass, which is 12 feet on the lower end.” Cooper said. “The water was probably about 10 to 11 feet.”

The Highway Department had to use an alternate route to even reach Stewart Street for cleanup on Sunday.

“It was late yesterday evening, 5 o’clock before they could even use the main road,” Cooper said. “The bad part is, they’re calling for more rain.”

Now, the priority is getting the debris in the road cleaned up.

“Getting it cleared up, getting the debris out of the road is what we’re working on now,” Cooper said. “The water has pumped the asphalt up and we’ve got a cutter to smooth that out.”

Cooper also estimates it will be a month before the roads in the area are fully repaired.

“Route 16 will probably take all this week, maybe a lot longer,” Cooper said. “That one hole up there will take a lot of rock. It’ll probably be a month or longer before everything is back to normal. We have extra crews working, so it might not take as long.”

Kevin Goodman was one of the city workers out cleaning up residue from the flooding. According to Goodman, the worst hit areas in Welch were near Stewart Street, downtown, and the local work. Goodman was working with two other men, Kasem Humphery and David Watson, cleaning up mud still entrenched under a railroad bridge.

“The water was still up yesterday,” Goodman said. “We’ll be cleaning it up for weeks.”

The men have been blowing dry the mud into a solid mixture before dumping it into a wheelbarrow to dispose. Goodman estimates they had already filled “hundreds” of wheelbarrows by 11 a.m. The three men still had several places to work before their day is over.

“This is probably just the beginning,” Goodman said.

— Contact Kate Coil at kcoil@bdtonline.com