SUNDIAL, W.Va. — Those who travel Route 3 through Raleigh County to work may be leaving considerably earlier in the next week. A massive rock slide on Friday blocked the road and the cleanup won’t go as quickly as most would like.
“It’s probably the largest intact rockslide we have ever seen,” said stateDepartment of Transportation Spokesman Brent Walker of the massive boulders which dislodged from the hillside.
One boulder of the slide is more than two stories tall and is accompanied by dozens of other boulders the size of cars and trucks. The Division of Highways is working with contractor Vecellio and Grogan Construction to come up with ways to move the slide out of the road. The work isn’t going quickly.
“We’re clearly another 10 days to two weeks away from getting this thing cleaned up off the roadway,” said Walker. “Not just cleaned up, but undoubtedly there are going to have to be some repairs made to the road, the guardrail, and just to shore up that hillside.”
Workers started blasting the larger rocks on Sunday. After each shot they moved in with heavy equipment and started moving away the smaller boulders.
The detour for many who use the road is taking an hour or longer in some cases.
“This is the world we live in,” said Walker. “We feel bad about that, but these are the things you just can’t predict.”