Crew continues repair work on collapsed Portsmouth road

PORTSMOUTH — Work crews remained busy Thursday afternoon in hopes of reopening access for many people who live off the east end of Fairview Lane, which partially collapsed due to the heavy rains overnight.

“We’re going to try to get the road open in 24 hours so people can get down through here, especially emergency vehicles. They’re putting stone in right now,” said Brian Woodhead, director of the Department of Public Works. 

DPW first learned about the collapse at about 6 a.m. Thursday and immediately reported to Fairview, which connects to East Main Road just north of St. Barnabas Church.

“Then we called East Coast (Construction), our on-call contractor, and they started mobilizing all the equipment down here,” Mr. Woodhead said.

The collapse left dozens of residents — those living on Friends Street, Kirduglyn Road, Molleur Road and Oliver Hazard Perry Road — with no way to access East Main Road. 

“This is really bad, and it goes all the way down to Oliver Hazard Perry,” said Town Planner Gary Crosby, who left his Kirduglyn Road home to watch the work crews Thursday morning. “All of it, all the way down to the bottom, is upheaved and torn up. It’s all gonna have to be broken up down to the nub and rebuilt.”

Mr. Crosby said the force of the water — the local area received about 8 inches — simply blew out one of the catch basins along Fairview Lane. 

“Once the water got outside of the system, it just took everything,” he said. “Nobody can get out right now from here (Kirduglyn Road) down.”

Further east is Bayside Avenue, which was being cleared so residents of that street could head north to access Lepes Road, which connects to East Main Road.

Mr. Crosby said he’s hoping that state or federal funding — such as the American Rescue Plan — could be tapped to help pay for the road rebuild, which will be a major undertaking.

Nathan Lister, operations manager for the Portsmouth Water and Fire District, was also on the scene along with several other staff members.

“We have water mains and two laterals going across the affected street, where the erosion was. We’re making sure there are no issues. We’re standing by in case of an emergency shutdown, which we currently do not have,” said Mr. Lister, adding that the District will know more when the asphalt gets peeled back. “We’ve had no water main breaks as of now.”

Flooding at library

Staff members at the Portsmouth Free Public Library were met by an unpleasant site when they reported to work Thursday morning: About an inch and a half of water in the Children’s Room on the lower level.

Fortunately, there was no major damage to books, although the room was closed for the day as maintenance man David Souza vacuumed up water.

“There were some things we had to lift off the floor, but the books were OK because they’re up about four inches,” said Carolyn Magnus, library director. “It was more like some craft supplies that were in boxes in the Children’s Room office. They’re sort of drying on a tarp downstairs.”

Everyone in the same boat

Kevin Ponte, manager of Portsmouth ACE Hardware, was seeing a steady stream of customers who all had the same problem.

“People have four inches of water in their basement, and they need to get it out,” he said, adding that customers are buying sump pumps, utility pumps, garden hoses, squeegees, and buckets.

“It’s been busy all morning and it will be busy all day,” Mr. Ponte said. “Everybody’s coming in for the same stuff. We’ve got plenty of supplies, though, so we’re well-prepared.”

Shellfish areas closed

The heavy rains forced the R.I. Department of Environmental Management to close Upper Bay shellfish conditional Area A, and Upper Bay Area B at noon on Thursday. Those areas will remain closed until noon on Sunday, Sept. 12.

In addition, the waters south of Conditional Area B to a line from Quonset Point to the southern tip of Prudence Island to Carr Point in Portsmouth closed at noon today and are scheduled to reopen at noon on Thursday, Sept. 9. Mount Hope Bay and the Kickemuit River closed today at noon and are closed until further notice.