Possible Reprieve for Drivers! Briceland Road May Not Have to Be Completely Closed
A culvert area in Whitmore Grove west of Redway is failing and undercutting the asphalt. [Photo provided by Supervisor Estelle Fennell]
The red arrow shows where the failing culvert is located. [Photo provided by Supervisor Estelle Fennell]
On Friday, new traffic signals will be put in place for one lane traffic control. Then, on Saturday, workers will begin digging on the failed culvert, removing a section.
Finch explained, “I’ve a company coming on Sunday.” After filling the voids in the damaged culvert, about two days of work, crews will then pull a flat liner made of PVC type material through the culvert. “They heat it up with steam and until it is like a noodle,” he said.
The liner then is expanded to fill the existing pipe area. Afterward, cold air is pumped through the “noodle” which fixes the liner in the new shape. This will take another day, he said.
On the left is a damaged culvert. On the right is the culvert after the liner was installed. [Image provided by Humboldt County from Miksis Services, Inc.]
“If this option goes as planned, we will only have to keep one lane closed in [Whittemore Grove],” states a press release issued by the County. This means traffic will NOT have to be rerouted over Old Briceland Road.
“If this does not work, we will have to go to Plan B which is a full road closure for approximately 10 days,” warns the press release.
Finch is very hopeful though. “I believe it will work,” he said confidently.
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That is smart thinking and good work to come up with a creative plan. However, its totally nonsense for the county to not of known about this problem before. Its also totally nonsense that the state park has anything to do with our roads. The state park should only be doing trails and fixing toilets in campgrounds
Yea!!
Legal weed tax dollars at work
Remember to keep one lane open for home invasions, drug deals and rich dope growers to go fishing
It is Whittemore, not Whitmore, Grove, named after Harris M. Whittemore.
Fixed. Thank you.
And technically renamed John De Witt Grove, former and late CEO of Save the Redwoods League. Not that great or accomplished a guy.
Nope. Not gonna stick. Executive decision.
If the culvert was failing already then it should be completely replaced. A culvert can still collapse if it is all rotted and rusted out. Some PVC liner does not reinforce the culvert structurally. One day when someone is hauling a dozer over this culvert it will collapse. Lining the culvert with a concrete base and this PVC liner seems like a hopeful bet. Someone lobbied the county good to get them to bite on this. Just hire Wilcox so they can install a culvert sized for the biblical flood and call it a day.
This was roundabout way of getting the county to repair Old Briceland Road, which was in really bad shape. All of us west the Eel River now have an alternate way out if an emergency closes Briceland-Thorn.
I would question the structural integrity of the pvc liner repair.