LOGAN COUNTY, W.Va. — Residents in Logan County evacuated from their homes last week after a mudslide will be home for Christmas.
State Department of Highways spokesman Brent Walker said thanks to available resources and working with a responsible contractor, Madison Creek Road will soon be reopened.
“It’s allowed us to make significant progress to the point that we’re pleased to be able to open that on Thursday,” he said.
At first, DOH crews were unsure exactly how long it would take to reopen the road due to the materials they were dealing with on the hillside. The original plan was to push the rest of the hillside down to create a temporary road, but that is no longer the case.
“We were able to basically scrape it down to the original grade, which is good news, and we were able to do that for the length of the slide,” said Walker.
It is unclear whether the road will be able to handle two lanes of traffic when it reopens Thursday, but the DOH plans to have flaggers out there regardless to make sure people can travel through the area safely.
But even though crews have been able to make a more permanent temporary road through the mudslide area, Walker said they plan to continue with the original plan.
“We’re still moving forward to build a causeway across the Guyandotte River and once that causeway is complete then we’ll figure out what to do with Madison Creek Road,” he said.
Forty residents were evacuated from their homes last week by river while around 30 residents remained with their homes on the other side of the mudslide. Walker said they continue to provide support where needed.
“We’re continuing to deliver food and supplies to the families who chose to remain in their homes as well as provide the accommodations on the other side in the form of hotels and rental cars and food and those kinds of things,” he adds.
Walker said they feel pretty where they are right now and are grateful that the residents have been patient with them through the whole process.