LYBURN, W.Va. — The West Virginia Division of Highways plans to build a temporary gravel road after a massive hillside slip on Madison Creek Road cut off access to the small community in Logan County.
The slide began with last weekend’s wet weather and destroyed the one road into Madison Creek Hollow, leading to the evacuation of more than half of the 70 residents. The remaining community members are staying put to see what the next move will be.
Department of Highways spokesman Brent Walker said the first step is getting rid of the hill causing the problem.
“We’re going to work on moving that hillside on down,” Walker said.
The temporary road will take about 10 days to complete and should have residents home by Christmas. The plans call for the road to be built over top of the burden left from knocking down the hillside. The plan also calls for building a low-level causeway bridge across the Guyandotte River to allow another temporary access route.
“Once that causeway is built, we will close the road and give it a more permanent fix,” Walker said.
The causeway construction is expected to last about 30 to 45 days. The causeway will then become the main access to the hollow for possibly a year as Madison Creek Road is rebuilt and shored up.
“Once we build that bridge, we’ll shutdown the road and give them temporary access,” said Walker. “It could be months, even up to a year.”
The DOH is paying for lodging and transportation for those residents who decided to evacuate.