Alberts Hill Road —

Collapsing Drainage Culvert Prompts Road Closure

By Andrew Gorosko

The structural failure of an aging large-diameter drainage culvert lying beneath Alberts Hill Road has prompted the town to ban traffic on an about 200-yard-long section of the rural road.

Town Public Works Director Fred Hurley said that after some asphalt pavement along the north side of Alberts Hill Road had collapsed, a town crew investigated and found that the top section of a large metallic drainage culvert beneath the road was collapsing due to corrosion.

That culvert discharges the water from a brook into the Lake Lillinonah section of the Housatonic River. 

The culvert’s collapse recently became apparent when the water in Lake Lillinonah was drawn down by the lake’s hydroelectric company owner for periodic lakeside maintenance.

The town had sought to have the lake’s owner, FirstLight Hydro Generating Company, keep the water level down to expedite a culvert replacement project, but a continued lake drawdown was not possible.

The road repair project, which will entail replacing the damaged metallic culvert with a new section of seven-foot-diameter concrete culvert, will be put out to bid by the town. The new culvert would be about 80 feet long.

 A complex and expensive aspect of the project will be “dewatering” the area where the new culvert would be installed, Mr Hurley said. That work would involve constructing some type of temporary dam to keep that area dry while construction is underway, he said.

The advent of winter weather also makes the repair project more complex, he said.

Mr Hurley said he expects the road to be repaired and reopened to traffic by next spring.

The section of Alberts Hill Road that is closed to traffic contains no residential properties. The closed road section lies directly west of Alberts Hill Road’s intersection with Valley Field Road North. Alberts Hill Road normally links Walnut Tree Hill Road to Echo Valley Road.

The closure of a section of Alberts Hill Road means long detours for motorists seeking to travel from one end of that road to the other. That detour includes the use of Walnut Tree Hill Road, Old Green Road, Horseshoe Ridge Road, Old Farm Hill Road, and Echo Valley Road.

Town emergency service personnel are aware of the road closure and consequently plan their travel with that road closure in mind when seeking to rapidly reach locations in that area, according to Mr Hurley.

“It’s a real nuisance,” Mr Hurley said.

The road section is closed due to concerns that heavy loads traveling over the pavement where the subterranean culvert is collapsing might cause the road itself to collapse. Such heavy loads would include vehicles such as concrete mixers, heating fuel trucks, and school buses.

Mr Hurley said he expects it will be costly to make the repairs necessary to reopen the closed road section.

The town soon expects to put the construction project out to bid, said Town Engineer Ronald Bolmer. The town is now designing the construction project, having had a topographic study of the area performed, he said.

The metallic culvert that will be replaced is more than 50 years old, Mr Bolmer said.