Damage at K

[Bubba]

Hi all, since 2004 when I believe this board was founded I have been coming here to get the latest buzz on what was happening on mountain, conditions, and general K-area info. I think that on the whole this is a very strong community here at K-Zone, and when I saw the damage reports on Sunday I was heartbroken. I was even more heartbroken when I saw the damage first hand as one of the producer's assigned to this story for NBC News. Our team in Vermont felt a strong purpose in not only showing the damage, but the struggle of the state's residents in traveling between points, and the human struggle of no water, power, etc. We also felt we had a duty to report the tremendous "VT Strong" spirit of rebuilding and helping each other out. That spirit we tried to show in this report. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/ns/nightly_news/

Another report we hope to show in the next few weeks is the tremendous rebuilding effort and more importantly the results of that effort which is certainly occurring. The progress made in just a few days was tremendous, there is a lot more to do, but I feel 100% confident I'll be making turns at K this year. If you have any or know of anyone who has a personal or business story of rebuilding and "coming back" please PM me, we would be interested in speaking with you/them.

One final note, a big thank you to the Town of Killington, Killington Police/Fire, and Killington Resort itself. Everyone in these entities was gracious, understanding of our desire to show what was going on and the recovery efforts, and was helpful with information that we could get on on how to help and what was being done to help those in the Killington area. Unsurprisingly, the restaurant owners, hotel owners, and people in the Killington community were also very gracious to us.

Tough times in the past few days for Vermont and Killington, I look forward to putting a report together showcasing the "better days" in the future. Thanks guys for the pictures and stories here...

I thought NBC did a really good job covering things around here, although I wish you could've added footage from the firehouse and the elementary school with all the volunteers. Granted, pictures of a collapsed Superstar Pub are more impressive and news stories have time constraints, but my g/f and I both commented as we watched Ron Mott that night at KBL that something about the town pulling together would've been a nice addition to the story.

By the way, Ron was in an area marked hardhats required. He wasn't wearing one in the story, however, even as he stood in the gaping hole near the collapse. How was that allowed?

[madhatter]

one would expect that in order to facilitate two way traffic some of those "gaps" on 4 will be temporarily bridged ( maybe with surplus bailey bridges?) Just

I'm not sure why a detour/Shift can't be made to the south. Would involve losing some trees and encroaching on the property (if its privte).

None of this makes any sense. There are no bridges out on Route 4. This is a job for big yellow excavators, bulldozers & graders, steam rollers, and dump trucks hauling rock & gravel.

I'm now thinking Route 4 will be opened end-to-end with a hot top surface by October 1. There is _A LOT_ of equipment working on the road. There might not be a climbing lane in Mendon this winter but the road will be open and in pretty good shape.

yeah completely ludicrous. filling in holes on top of mud and loose debris, landslides etc and paving them over will be just fine. Ya see 107? the road went to the LEFT of those phone poles and the river ran directly along the edge. where is this billions of cubic yards of fill going to come from? What will keep it from being undercut by the river that has always run right along it in that area? I hope you are right and there is blacktop by then but I wouldn't bet on it. as mentioned bailey bridges can be quite long and are quite easy to set in place. They would be a FAR faster ( and more stable) fix in some places than a zillion dump trucks full of fill. They don't necessarily have to cover a span, go over water etc. They could simply be set in place to widen, smooth out, or cover a major change in rd elevation. I was also told a year or so back at our sled club meeting that there are a number of surplus bailey bridges in the state as they were looking to get one for the club as an alternative to the 100 bridge at ted green ford.

[winter]

Hi all, since 2004 when I believe this board was founded I have been coming here to get the latest buzz on what was happening on mountain,

I thought NBC did a really good job covering things around here, although I wish you could've added footage from the firehouse and the elementary school with all the volunteers. Granted, pictures of a collapsed Superstar Pub are more impressive and news stories have time constraints, but my g/f and I both commented as we watched Ron Mott that night at KBL that something about the town pulling together would've been a nice addition to the story.

By the way, Ron was in an area marked hardhats required. He wasn't wearing one in the story, however, even as he stood in the gaping hole near the collapse. How was that allowed?

Bubba, thanks for your compliments. We actually did do some reporting from the elementary school and profiled Officer Whit the next morning in our early report on TODAY with Amy Robach, I can dig for a link later today. I think we captured the town's efforts, honestly, we could've spent about 5 days in each town, but did try to get that in. I believe the hardhat area was the area where the men were working to move debris out of the Superstar Pub which we were away from on solid ground, we compress the camera angle to fit the damage in while keeping the correspondent (Ron), in frame. We were safe, and Ron actually got married in Vermont and has a lot of family there so we were both "safely" into the story. Thanks again!

[Geoff]

one would expect that in order to facilitate two way traffic some of those "gaps" on 4 will be temporarily bridged ( maybe with surplus bailey bridges?) Just

I'm not sure why a detour/Shift can't be made to the south. Would involve losing some trees and encroaching on the property (if its privte).

None of this makes any sense. There are no bridges out on Route 4. This is a job for big yellow excavators, bulldozers & graders, steam rollers, and dump trucks hauling rock & gravel.

I'm now thinking Route 4 will be opened end-to-end with a hot top surface by October 1. There is _A LOT_ of equipment working on the road. There might not be a climbing lane in Mendon this winter but the road will be open and in pretty good shape.

yeah completely ludicrous. filling in holes on top of mud and loose debris, landslides etc and paving them over will be just fine. Ya see 107?

The topic was Route 4. I realize you are in a purple snit over the damage to your town but they're not going to be trailering in temporary bridges on Route 4. They're already filling all the washouts on Route 4. Craig Mosher had the River Road washout good to go on Saturday morning. The worst washout on Route 4 between Killington and Woodstock is at Shortski's house. That's more than halfway repaired. You can look at the video clip on the Killington Resort facebook page from this morning and see all the progress they have made in Mendon.

[Bubba]

Hi all, since 2004 when I believe this board was founded I have been coming here to get the latest buzz on what was happening on mountain,

I thought NBC did a really good job covering things around here, although I wish you could've added footage from the firehouse and the elementary school with all the volunteers. Granted, pictures of a collapsed Superstar Pub are more impressive and news stories have time constraints, but my g/f and I both commented as we watched Ron Mott that night at KBL that something about the town pulling together would've been a nice addition to the story.

By the way, Ron was in an area marked hardhats required. He wasn't wearing one in the story, however, even as he stood in the gaping hole near the collapse. How was that allowed?

Bubba, thanks for your compliments. We actually did do some reporting from the elementary school and profiled Officer Whit the next morning in our early report on TODAY with Amy Robach, I can dig for a link later today. I think we captured the town's efforts, honestly, we could've spent about 5 days in each town, but did try to get that in. I believe the hardhat area was the area where the men were working to move debris out of the Superstar Pub which we were away from on solid ground, we compress the camera angle to fit the damage in while keeping the correspondent (Ron), in frame. We were safe, and Ron actually got married in Vermont and has a lot of family there so we were both "safely" into the story. Thanks again!

I didn't realize Ron was so tied in to Vermont. I caught a brief clip of Whit on one of the networks' coverage but I think it might've been CBS. A lot of links have been posted in this and other threads and I've lost track of which is which. Actually, I watched both NBC and CBS coverage the first few days after I had power back - Tuesday - and I think both did a good job of showing the devastation as well as the efforts of volunteers and others to get things back up and running.

Coming back in a few weeks would be a great idea. As a suggestion, I'd try to get hold of Craig Mosher for an interview. He and his crews got out and started cleaning up the area near his house at 4/100 over by the Bridgewater border even while part of Craig's property had suffered significant damage. He then got hold of the state and received an OK to start working on Route 4 from River Road east and had that section of road passable by Tuesday afternoon. He deserves a lot of credit for opening access to Killington by road as quickly as we got it. You can also talk to Seth Webb who, as soon to be Interim Town Manager, has worked hard to get things stabilized in town, coordinated with adjoining towns and generally kept people informed along the way. I'm not sure how the job could've been done any better.

[madhatter]

one would expect that in order to facilitate two way traffic some of those "gaps" on 4 will be temporarily bridged ( maybe with surplus bailey bridges?) Just

I'm not sure why a detour/Shift can't be made to the south. Would involve losing some trees and encroaching on the property (if its privte).

None of this makes any sense. There are no bridges out on Route 4. This is a job for big yellow excavators, bulldozers & graders, steam rollers, and dump trucks hauling rock & gravel.

I'm now thinking Route 4 will be opened end-to-end with a hot top surface by October 1. There is _A LOT_ of equipment working on the road. There might not be a climbing lane in Mendon this winter but the road will be open and in pretty good shape.

yeah completely ludicrous. filling in holes on top of mud and loose debris, landslides etc and paving them over will be just fine. Ya see 107?

The topic was Route 4. I realize you are in a purple snit over the damage to your town but they're not going to be trailering in temporary bridges on Route 4. They're already filling all the washouts on Route 4. Craig Mosher had the River Road washout good to go on Saturday morning. The worst washout on Route 4 between Killington and Woodstock is at Shortski's house. That's more than halfway repaired. You can look at the video clip on the Killington Resort facebook page from this morning and see all the progress they have made in Mendon.

yeah you are correct 2 lanes of black top from woodstock to rutland by october 1st ( 24 days) is far more realistic. as far as damage to "my town" I don;t own a town, have means to get whatever I need whenever I need it and do not rely on tourists to make money so I am hardly in a 'purple snit" whatever the f*** that is. perhaps you were talking about rt4. its not the ONLY rd to killington or the only rd damaged in the area or state for that matter. someone else posted the 107 pics. I commented on them pertaining to the " move the river away" comment someone else made. move it where? these are not 3 day fixes. as someone said what do you use as a retaining wall? where will it all come from? how long will it take to construct it? 107 is a MAJOR truck rte to rutland from 89. I'm sure trucks use it to get to K as well. Actually its been nice NOT hearing them wail their jake brakes as they do 70 into the bend by the peavine. Having met you once in the past I know you really aren;t the know it all dick you come off as here. so back the f*** off. I only offered a speculative solution, a realistic possibility that can work to bridge difficult sections that may need to be re-engineered. Why would anyone have a problem with that?

[Bubba]

Having met you once in the past I know you really aren;t the know it all dick you come off as here.

"Know it all dick" is Geoff's on-line personna. In person, he's just strongly opinionated.

[rogman]

Decaf anyone?

[Dr. NO]

Having met you once in the past I know you really aren;t the know it all dick you come off as here.

"Know it all dick" is Geoff's on-line personna. In person, he's just strongly opinionated.

Understatement! Go with the decaf or start drinking heavily.

OMG, a BUBBA spelling error. Guess which word! Welcome to the Dr. NO school of spelling and grammer.

[Bubba]

Having met you once in the past I know you really aren;t the know it all dick you come off as here.

"Know it all dick" is Geoff's on-line personna. In person, he's just strongly opinionated.

Understatement! Go with the decaf or start drinking heavily.

OMG, a BUBBA spelling error. Guess which word! Welcome to the Dr. NO school of spelling and grammer.

Fat finger syndrome.

[Mister Moose]

The real big challenge is Rte 4 in Mendon. The scope of that requires lots of engineering and huge earth moving. There is no easy quick fix.

They've already mostly diverted the river bed back to where it was and are trucking in rock to fill the road bed. I'll bet it looks like a road in 2 weeks or less and has hot top on it October 1.

I don't disagree that they can do a temporary fix to get traffic up and running. (Actually that would be the second temporary fix). What I'm saying is the permanent fix is going to be much more involved and time consuming. I think there's going to be construction on Rte 4 for for a long time to come, certainly more than Oct 1.

[winter]

Coming back in a few weeks would be a great idea. As a suggestion, I'd try to get hold of Craig Mosher for an interview. He and his crews got out and started cleaning up the area near his house at 4/100 over by the Bridgewater border even while part of Craig's property had suffered significant damage. He then got hold of the state and received an OK to start working on Route 4 from River Road east and had that section of road passable by Tuesday afternoon. He deserves a lot of credit for opening access to Killington by road as quickly as we got it. You can also talk to Seth Webb who, as soon to be Interim Town Manager, has worked hard to get things stabilized in town, coordinated with adjoining towns and generally kept people informed along the way. I'm not sure how the job could've been done any better.

Great suggestions, thank you!

[Geoff]

Having met you once in the past I know you really aren;t the know it all dick you come off as here.

"Know it all dick" is Geoff's on-line personna. In person, he's just strongly opinionated.

With the caveat that I always offer up what I know as fact and what I don't know and is conjecture or opinion. That's what Engineers do. I'm paid a lot of money to be able to recognise the difference.

[Big Bob]

The real big challenge is Rte 4 in Mendon. The scope of that requires lots of engineering and huge earth moving. There is no easy quick fix.

They've already mostly diverted the river bed back to where it was and are trucking in rock to fill the road bed. I'll bet it looks like a road in 2 weeks or less and has hot top on it October 1.

I don't disagree that they can do a temporary fix to get traffic up and running. (Actually that would be the second temporary fix). What I'm saying is the permanent fix is going to be much more involved and time consuming. I think there's going to be construction on Rte 4 for for a long time to come, certainly more than Oct 1.

The only "permanent fix" would bee to move the roads out of the river valleys gravelly soils which erode very quickly when subject to fast moving water, to the ridge tops of the mountains. We all know that ain't gonna happen!!

Back to the mnt, Marisa took a hike today and posted some pictures on her blog. http://www.femaleskibum.com/2011/09/kil ... ck-on.html

[MarieM]

Having met you once in the past I know you really aren;t the know it all dick you come off as here.

"Know it all dick" is Geoff's on-line personna. In person, he's just strongly opinionated.

With the caveat that I always offer up what I know as fact and what I don't know and is conjecture or opinion. That's what Engineers do. I'm paid a lot of money to be able to recognise the difference.

This definitely needs a "like."

(And a question...are you English, Geoff? "Recognise?")