MINK SHOALS, W.Va. — Back to back rock slides shutdown a major artery in Kanawha County on Monday morning. Department of Highway crews were called to U.S.Route119 at Mink Shoals about 3 p.m. Sunday when large boulders rolled from the hillside into the middle of the road.
The crews were almost done breaking up and hauling away the rock around midnight which nature struck again.
“Our crews were actually getting ready to go home when a bigger slide came down, ” said Department of Highways Spokesperson Carrie Bly. “It actually covered over a piece of equipment one of our operators was in and he had to jump out.”
The secondary slide was much bigger and caused even bigger problems for removal. Crews expect they’ll be able to have most of the material out and the highway reopened by Monday evening.
Bly said one delay was a lack of anywhere nearby to dump the load of material.
“We don’t have any local haul sites in Kanawha County to take this,” she said. “We’re hauling it all the way down to London where they’re doing some building at the fire hall and are taking our stuff there, but we’re trying to find a haul site that is closer.”
Bly said fortunately crews were already on scene when the second slid came just after midnight. She said if traffic had been passing, it would have been far worse. Engineers have looked at the hillside and believe most of what can come down already has so they don’t need to worry too much about shoring up the hillside as part of the clean up process.
“There’s still some water and mud coming down and some little rocks,” Bly said. “But we feel right now there’s not a threat of a bigger slide occurring, but it’s something we are certainly going to keep an eye on.”