By: Kalea Gunderson | Posted: Mar. 29, 2018 | Source: WCHS
ELKVIEW, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) — Neighbors on Blue Creek Road in Elkview are expressing their concerns about a treacherous spot that has been declining for a few years now.
The original damage was done back in 2015 when a rockslide covered part of the road. Now many are concerned that could happen again.
Nancy Marion said the road is hard to walk on and much harder to drive on as she gestured to a large gash in the road. She said it makes it difficult for neighbors in Elkview to pass each other daily, trying to avoid the trenches in the pavement.
“There’s us elderly people who live up here and if we need an ambulance, we can’t get through,” Marion said. “This road’s just going over the hill.”
Marion said the road has been going downhill, literally, since April 2015 when boulders came crashing down from the hillside.
“We couldn’t get in or out,” Marion said, looking at the front page of the newspaper from the day of the rockslide.
People were trapped for days and with the looks of the cracks in the road and hillside, they fear it could happen again and soon.
“It’s not getting any better, the road is caving away. There’s no question. It’s going to happen again. It’s just a matter of when,” Scott Keeling said.
When it rains, even lightly, they expect to see the road covered by debris.
“Even like that misty rain we’ve had the past couple days,” Keeling said. “When I came through this morning, it was all over the road. It was everywhere.”
Marion said on top of the mess, there is only one warning sign on the road, posing a hazard to more than just neighbors but school buses, mail carriers and emergency crews.
“This road needs replaced. Houses for sale up here, they probably can’t even sell them because they’ll say, ‘Well, we don’t even have a road up here.’ It’s really, really necessary,” Marion said.
Department of Transportation Communications Director Brent Walker said this stretch of Blue Creek Road is a part of a countywide slip repair project. There are plans for DOT workers to visit that road and figure out exactly how to improve it, but he said there is no set timeline in place right now.
