Road South of Lowell Will Be a Long-term Project

The Henry County Road Department continues to work on a solution for a section of the New London Road south of Lowell.  An embankment gave away creating a slide and making the road impassable.  The County engineer Jake Hotckiss told the Supervisors Tuesday his crews are trying to get a temporary road constructed and open to the public. He asked the board to approve a 30 mile per hour speed limit for what will be a 1400 foot gravel piece between two paved sections thru winter and spring.  The Engineer is also working to obtain government emergency funds to pay for the work in order to get the road opened up to traffic with the temporary road that would be used through the winter and spring months. Nothing has been finalized and there is no timeline for when the temporary roadway will be open. Hotchkiss says the slide has been stopped and so far remains stable.  He said there were some issues with the area and his crews were addressing them but there was never any indication of a problem this large.