The damaged culvert on Rollins Ridge Road in Dixfield from the July 24 flash flood has made the bridge unsafe for use. Town of Dixfield photo
DIXFIELD — The town is now looking at more than $1.5 million in repairs after two storms caused significant damage to roadways, said Town Manager Alicia Conn on Thursday.
A storm that came through earlier this week has added more than $500,000 in damages to the already $1 million in damages the town was already facing from a May 1 storm.
Early in the day Thursday, Conn said she was keeping an eye out on more rain that had been forecast. “Fingers crossed. I’m scared,” she said.
Several inches of rain fell in a two-hour period this week, damaging portions of Rollins Ridge Road and Valley Brook Road, two of the seven roads that were already damaged by the storm on May 1.
Conn said damage to a culvert by the bridge on Rollins Ridge Road has made that area unsafe to use, but there is a bypass to make all residences accessible.
For both these roads, she said the town should qualify for disaster relief, but she has not heard from officials if that will be the case. Conn said this is not an emergency situation.
In the May 1 storm, the worst of the seven roads that flooded — most of which are located near East Dixfield — was Severy Hill Road, where culverts failed as a result of the heavy rain, with holes as deep as 7 feet. She said this road is a priority to be engineered for a rebuild.
Conn said the road crew has made the road, half of which was damaged, passable again.
She said work to make the other six damaged roads passable has been made, which include Coolidge Road, Valley Brook Road, Porter Bridge, Swan Avenue, Averill Hill and Rollins Ridge.
Conn said she has been working with Maine Emergency Management Agency and Federal Emergency Management Agency and is expecting relief money to help repair the initial $1 million in damage from May 1.
The repairs done so far by public works, which only recently hired two people to fill the five-man department, have been made with a Band-Aid approach using funds from the public works budget.
Conn said the town is going to have to contract out permanent repairs because the department does not have the necessary labor and equipment to make those repairs on its own.
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