Trapped in Waterville Valley!

[fatlazyless]

Due to flooding problems with the Mad River that includes several wash-outs and some fencing on a Rt 49 bridge getting washed out or something, and a wash-out on the Upper Mad River Rd or something, the police have closed Rt 49 which means you cannot get out of Waterville Valley. Heard that one old earthern section of the Campton Dam on the Mad River in Campton, way over on the right side as you face it, which probably includes an inflow-outflow for a small hydro-electric turbine, got washed out or something, too?

www.wmur.com/video/29007825/detail.html

Oh well, while the "Town at the End of the Road' may be closed to entering or leaving by automobile; all the electricity, telephone, internet, two indoor tennis courts, indoor 25-yard, 84-degree olympic swimming pool, outdoor 80-degree olympic swimming pool, saunas, and huge indoor ice arena are all working just fine. And yes, at least two restaurants are still open: the Legends bar & grill, and the Old Waterville Pizza! So, things could definitely be a lot worse here in Waterville Valley www.watervillevalley.org which is an excellent place to get stuck www.visitwatervillevalley.com!

Heard that the Six Flags Trailer Park www.sixflagsmhp.com/location.html down behind Handyman Hardware in Campton is having some serious flooding problems too, probably related to the Campton Dam on the Mad River getting breached. So, while some hard working folks down in Campton at the Six Flags probably get their old trailers washed away down the river, up here in the Valley, all us lazy bums get to play indoor tennis and hit the pool and sauna. Something seems to tell me that, rich or poor, you are probably better off rich!

Besides, getting trapped like this becomes a good time to take care of things like cleaning the bathroom floor and kitchen and everything else! For something like $2.49 the Meredith Family Dollar carries this new Clorox product called Clorox Bleach Foamer, for the bathroom, and with nothing better to do while stuck here, will go put this Clorox to work..........atten-hut!!!:D:

[fatlazyless]

Wow, the Mad River took an unknown number (to me) of huge, big healthy bites out of State Route 49, over maybe a two or three mile length of the road. A section that's maybe three miles long is closed, and all traffic is detoured onto the Upper Mad River Rd which is an unpaved, narrow road. Another spot up at the Rt 49 S-curve got totally removed by the river, and maybe two hundred yards of road has disappeared. If anyone has an airplane and wants to go take some aerial photos, it would be appreciated here.

In my very unprofessional opinion, it looks like it could take a month or two or something, to repair one section where the river destroyed Rt 49, maybe 600-yards of road that was built upon a berm type structure. It's no quick fix. It's a big, serious road repair! Good thing we got a NH Democrat for a governor in Gov Lynch because you all know what the NH Republicans would say: Sorry, there's no money for this, too bad, you'll just have to get used to the alternate dirt road! And then, the Republicans would say something like: Say, there was no paved roads back during the Revolutionary War, 1776-1789, so why do we need paved roads now......duh!

As I recall, this road was redesigned and seriously up-graded some time around 1982, when Gov John H Sununu was running the state. Tom Corcoran and Gov Sununu were buddy-buddy, and this new Rt 49 got built. So, while a Republican built it in the first place, it will most likely take a Democratic President named Obama to get it fixed up and rebuilt with some more NH stimilus money, because the NH Republicans already cut the NH-DOT budget so much that a number of state roads had their snow plow schedules seriously cut back for the coming winter. Those stingy NH Republicans are so tight with a buck that they cannot even get the early morning snow plowed off a state road, so just forgetabout them R-dudes actually doing any serious reconstruction work. They say "work, what's that?"

NH Republicans do not repair noth'n!
They just say NO!

Good thing that Gov Lynch is a NH Democrat!
Otherwise, because NH-Republicans just say NO!

Route 49 will get fixed,
No thanks to the NH Republicans.

Gov Lynch will get it done,
With a little help from President Obama!

The Democrats will say:
Rt 49 can get repaired fast,
Yes, we can!

[ITD]

Wow, the Mad River took an unknown number (to me) of huge, big healthy bites out of State Route 49, over maybe a two or three mile length of the road. A section that's maybe three miles long is closed, and all traffic is detoured onto the Upper Mad River Rd which is an unpaved, narrow road. Another spot up at the Rt 49 S-curve got totally removed by the river, and maybe two hundred yards of road has disappeared. If anyone has an airplane and wants to go take some aerial photos, it would be appreciated here.

In my very unprofessional opinion, it looks like it could take a month or two or something, to repair one section where the river destroyed Rt 49, maybe 600-yards of road that was built upon a berm type structure. It's no quick fix. It's a big, serious road repair! Good thing we got a NH Democrat for a governor in Gov Lynch because you all know what the NH Republicans would say: Sorry, there's no money for this, too bad, you'll just have to get used to the alternate dirt road! And then, the Republicans would say something like: Say, there was no paved roads back during the Revolutionary War, 1776-1789, so why do we need paved roads now......duh!

As I recall, this road was redesigned and seriously up-graded some time around 1982, when Gov John H Sununu was running the state. Tom Corcoran and Gov Sununu were buddy-buddy, and this new Rt 49 got built. So, while a Republican built it in the first place, it will most likely take a Democratic President named Obama to get it fixed up and rebuilt with some more NH stimilus money, because the NH Republicans already cut the NH-DOT budget so much that a number of state roads had their snow plow schedules seriously cut back for the coming winter.

NH Republicans do not repair noth'n!
They just say NO!

Good thing that Gov Lynch is a NH Democrat!
Otherwise, because NH-Republicans just say NO!

Route 49 will get fixed,
No thanks to the NH Republicans.

Gov Lynch will get it done,
With a little help from President Obama!

The Democrats will say:
Rt 49 can get repaired fast,
Yes, we can!

:laugh: Yep Less, we are living in Democrat nirvana, right now, I'm glad someone likes it, I think you are the only one though. :laugh:

[Belmont Resident]

We had taken a ride up to Woodstock for lunch just after bike week, traveling over much of that same road going over the bridge just down from that dam and taking a right onto 175. It was a really nice back country road for a motorcycle ride.

As for the R verses D thing, I just plan hate all politicians R or D.

[fatlazyless]

With the price of gold up around $1800/ounce, it might just be worth picking through all these miles of up-turned Mad River embankment and scour under the newly moved gravel, rocks, sand and boulders for a little piece of gold glitter.

Maybe I'm totally off base on this, but yesterday at about 7-pm, it sure looked like that was two local guys carrying a water & sand cleaning hose attached to a big vacuum, and a portable gasoline generator, lugging it all across the bridge at the first north bound road closure. What else would they be doing with that?

.............

What with the bridge to bridge, Rt 49, 3-mile road detour, and the Rt 49 s-curve, construction stoplight, it could be at least a little slow getting in and out of Waterville Valley on this Labor Day, 3-day weekend? It can make the trip maybe 15-minutes longer when there is absolutely zero automobile traffic like last night, and I know that Upper River Rd, dirt curvy road, pretty good, so what will it be like on this holiday weekend? It just seems like a lot of Massachusetts folk do not feel too comfortable driving a windy and wet, narrow dirt road.

[fpartri497]

You tottaly off base????? Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha :eek:

[fatlazyless]

http://www.wmur.com/news/29024514/detail.html

has a link, "Photos: Damage caused by Irene" that is a 70-photo slideshow. At almost the very end of the 70 photo slideshow, about #65, there's two pictures titled "Rt 49-Campton" that show how the Mad River got angry and took a big bite out of Route 49 there.

So, what will the fix be? Do they move the road, or do they fix the river? Hey, if it were up to me, I'd just forgetaboutit alltogether, and put up a sign, "Rough Road Ahead," and re-open that Route 49 today so's we don't have this 3-mile, dirt road detour to deal with!

Local scuttlebutt says that Governor Lynch will be coming to Campton-Thornton-Waterville Valley, maybe today Wednesday, to be looking at the Mad River and Route 49. And, it looks like the local scuttlebutt was correct: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20110831/NEWS11/110839980 .... "Lynch tours flood damaged Waterville Valley with Sununu," August 31, 2011.

What this Union Leader article is missing are photographs of the Route 49, Waterville Valley s-curve with the steel highway fence and heavy support posts attached, that is now suspended over about 50' of vertical empty space, held up high above the newly located Mad River way down below. A few different photos showing the various Route 49 road damage, along the 1 1/2 mile stretch of closed road, with the Mad River positioned below are needed here!

From the Union Leader article: " ...which ate away the road and changed the course of the river in five places."

Something tells me the repair fix could be taking weeks or months, plus there's at least one other Route 49 flood wash-out, up at the WV s-curve which is just as bad or maybe much worse due to its' location between a high, steep rocky slope and the river. Is there even enough geography left at that confined spot for both the river and the road to co-exist?

What this thread needs are some high quality photographs taken from an airplane or a helicopter that would show what's what with the river and the state road!!! Anybody with an airplane looking for something to do on a beautiful sunny day today?

You know the Mad River has been here for a lot longer than Route 49. The river is about 12,000 years old, while the existing Route 49 is about 30-years old when it got a major re-do in about 1982.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmVnlm9GbQo
..............

It looks like there are five different locations spread over about three miles, driving south to north on Route 49 (which is now closed to all traffic and detoured) up through Campton, Thornton & Waterville Valley, where the Mad River seriously eroded into one travel lane of Route 49. The first three spots look like medium difficult fixes, the forth is an easier fix, and the fifth location at the WV s-curve is far and away, the most difficult fix. All the first four repair jobs look doable, while the fifth WV s-curve looks like a very challenging engineering, road-river, no-easy fix, repair job.

What with the confined space there between the river undercutting below and the rocky steep slope behind; the rushing river, and the 50' high eroded embankment below, it does not look like fixing that will be at all easy, but it will probably get done as opposed to moving the road to a new location, which would probably need a lot of drilling and blasting into a solid granite hillside. Only time will tell? Just my two cents as a certified sidewalk supervisor!!!
..............

The bridge in this video is a Town of Waterville Valley local bridge that is closed now, but survived the high water on the Mad River with what looks like minor damage mostly to electric and water lines that were attached underneath that got destroyed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FL2SAQxecw&NR=1

[fatlazyless]

Up on the Waterville Valley cross county ski trails, here's another Topical Storm Irene flood related item that I just saw this morning while out taking a morning walk: A steel bridge, approximately 120' long x 10' wide, that spanned the east branch of the Mad River was apparently swept away, and I was unable to locate the wrecked structure looking for at least 100 yards downstream. It is obviously downstream somewhere?

This bridge was part of the Waterville Valley hiking and cross country ski system and was capable of supporting a diesel snow groomer that must weigh at least 5-tons or more. It was a prefabricated steel bridge and had been in place since about 1975. It spanned across the east branch, a span of about 120', with no supports underneath, and it had a strongly arched design to it. It looked like it was constructed from sections and pieces like an erector set, on-site, all-steel construction, very rusty and with a wood-timber road bed.

It is totally gone and all that's left are some heavy timbers that it set on, on both embankments. Looking at the timbers, the bridge probably just set on the embankments without being anchored or secured onto it......so off it must have gone with all the big water....on a wild Mad River....big bridge - surfer style ride!

By losing this bridge, the WV cross country ski and hiking system is cut off big time from accessing a large portion of the trails system including the very popular Mad River Trail hiking trail so this is a big loss for local skiers and walkers. Wading across at that spot on the river is probably pretty difficult to do.

..........

Another much smaller foot traffic only bridge on nearby Snow's Brook partially survived with its' steel pipe supports still at the location while all the wood railings, and wood walkway were washed away.

[fatlazyless]

We are talking about a five mile stretch of state Route 49 that had five different spots where the Mad River changed its course and eat away big chunks of the road.

On Sunday, Tropical Storm Irene blew into the area with some heavy rainfall.

On that Sunday, the police closed off the road.

On Monday, a three mile detour was set up using two bridges and the Upper Mad River Rd which is mostly a dirt road.

On Tuesday, the NH-DOT showed up and placed heavy concrete barriers all around the five washed out road locations, and set up one construction style stoplight up at the WV s-curve.

On Friday, Audley Construction showed up with three large Caterpillar excavators, and got to work fixing the river's flow, fixing the river bank, and fixing up the road. Plus there's two other road repair companies: Andrews and Weaver, so's all told it looks like there is one large grader, one small grader, five large excavators, three medium dozers, one loader w/ back hoe, and one roller. Plus, up in WV there's the Johnson Co with two excavators working on town and ski area roads. Damages to Route 49 is getting fixed up so fast that it makes your head spin watching the Cat excavators move tons and tons of river sand, gravel, rocks and boulders, as the big yellow machines spin, reach, grab, move, load and unload; these machines are definitely the right tool for this job! Sitting inside the air conditioned cab, the operator controls the big machine with two small joy sticks, just like a video game, as they sit there almost motionless for hours, directing, while the excavators guzzle down diesel fuel, and change back the shape of the river.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS2J0hnSlfM

This Mad River-Route 49 repair job is going so fast and so smooth, it's hard to believe how much got fixed up in just two days work, Friday and Saturday!

On Sunday today, all road repair construction got the day off, but the road now drives real good what with the detour no longer needed and now there's five one lane, stop sign spots with the speed lowered to 30-mph. Could be this is NH state government at its best; fixing up Route 49 and the Mad River! Plus the s-curve is now directly on the river, a river front location with BIG VIEWS out to solid granite cliffs on Mts Welch and Dickey nearby.

If the s-curve were private property, as opposed to a state road abutting federal property, the local assessor would easily be doubling or even tripling its value now that it is directly hovering high next to the Mad River. A very big local improvement........plus the road now has a serious good mountain view at that spot......courtesy of........Tropical Storm Irene! Thankyou Irene but do us all a big favor, and do not return anytime soon!

[fatlazyless]

Hey, here's something kinda interesting......last evening.... one of the Thornton cops in a black Crown Vic had a total of three vehicles all stopped at one time for speeding....Rt-49 Thornton, Campton, & WV has a four mile construction zone now with the speed reduced from 40 down to 30 what with five different river & road reconstruction zones....with one lanes, yields, and a stop light.

So.....hat's off to the Thornton officer.....a threebie......ain't that somethun! Wonder if the speeders will get hit with some type of a construction zone, extra penalty....too bad!

[chipj29]

Hey, here's something kinda interesting......last evening.... one of the Thornton cops in a black Crown Vic had a total of three vehicles all stopped at one time for speeding....Rt-49 Thornton, Campton, & WV has a four mile construction zone now with the speed reduced from 40 down to 30 what with five different river & road reconstruction zones....with one lanes, yields, and a stop light.

So.....hat's off to the Thornton officer.....a threebie......ain't that somethun! Wonder if the speeders will get hit with some type of a construction zone, extra penalty....too bad!

What makes you so sure that they were all stopped for speeding?

[fatlazyless]

What makes you so sure that they were all stopped for speeding?

Along that stretch where they were all stopped is now a 30-mph construction zone, but the road encourages speed of 45, so it's just my best educated guess that they were all speeding, three in a line, maybe thinking safety in numbers or something would keep them exempt from the flashing blue lights. So, it's my guess......like what else could they be stopped for....I'm about 99.44% sure it had to be speeding. Plus, it was Sunday evening or late afternoon, so they easily could have been weekend visiters from away, somewhere, like Needham, Ma, or someplace.

Could be they had the 'needham for speedham .........:eek:?