A small portion of Romaine Creek Road in unincorporated Fenton will be closed during the day Tuesday (May 7) and Wednesday (May 8) while county crews try to determine the cause of landslides in the area.
About 1,100 feet of Romaine Creek between East Romaine Creek and Corn Lane will be closed to all traffic between 7:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. both days, Public Works Director Jason Jonas said.
“Any time we have a complete closure, it’s painful, but in this case, it’s necessary,” he said.
That section of Romaine Creek carries fewer than 250 cars per day and there are few homes in the area, so impact will be relatively minimal, Jonas said.
He said there was a landslide on the hillside of one side of the road in 2016, and a few weeks ago, another slide occurred near the same site. Next week, county crews will take samples of soil to determine the cause of the wayward dirt.
The soil sampling project is estimated to cost up to $19,000, Jonas said.
“Unlike other areas where slides occur, this is not a flood area, so flooding has nothing to do with it,” he said. “We believe there may be a spring near the base of the hill that has become a factor because of the wetter conditions we’ve had in the recent past. We have worked with (Public Water District No. 3) and determined that it’s not a problem with one of their mains.”
Jonas said county crews will drill into the soil every 50 feet or so, 20 to 40 feet deep.
“We’ll be looking at the area where the soil is more saturated,” he said. “If it’s only one boring, that will be the best-case scenario, but there’s a possibility it will be more.”
The findings, he said, will determine what will be required to fix the situation.
“Depending on what we’ll need to do, it’s possible that there will be a complete closure for a longer period of time this summer, Once we identify the problem, we’ll engineer a solution as quickly as possible.”
In the meantime, Jonas said, motorists who use the road should not feel unsafe.
“The westbound lane has been closed since the most recent slide, and will remain that way, so the road is limited to one-way traffic, with stop controls so that traffic from either direction can use it,” he said. “There is no threat of an imminent slide. We would not allow the road to be open at all if we felt that there was any risk to traffic.”