Flood Damage Causes Significant Damage to Chardon Township Street
Wisner Road will remain closed for the foreseeable future after severe flood damage, Chardon Township Trustees said at their April 1 meeting.
Wisner Road will remain closed for the foreseeable future after severe flood damage, Chardon Township Trustees said at their April 1 meeting.
“There was a pretty catastrophic incident that happened down on Mitchells Mill (Road) today with a bunch of trees,” said Road Superintendent Jason Bosma. “They got lodged up against the bridge, caused the water to overflow and wash out part of Wisner Road. That road is closed, I’m going to say indefinitely, until we figure out a solution to making it passable.”
Trustee Brian Valletto said some areas upstream received significantly more rain than Chardon Township during the recent storm.
“This was a product of every single bank got washed out from probably beyond Chesterland into Chardon and it just got caught at that one spot,” he said. “It legitimately was a flash flood. It was not just caused by the river, the Wisner Road portion. The amount of water that was coming from the rest of Chardon, all the way up from Mentor Road down came through that valley so hard, it pushed whoever’s fence that is on the corner. It knocked every fence post out, it’s all in the river, along with half the road.”
Bosma added that the bridge itself is also closed, with only emergency vehicles permitted to pass through.
Debris removal from the bridge is scheduled to begin April 6 and is expected to take approximately three days, Geauga County Engineer Andy Haupt said in an April 3 press release.
Once the debris is cleared, the bridge can be inspected for damage and, if its structural integrity is intact, reopened, he said.
While the county is responsible for clearing the log-jam of trees, reconstructing Wisner Road falls to the township, said Trustee Mike Brown.
“Seeing as this is going to be something we consider an emergency situation, I’ve reached out to our state senator and state representative requesting that a portion of Chardon Township — and I believe it’s actually gonna extend to another jurisdiction, Kirtland as well — we’re basically asking for emergency designation and help in what’s probably going to be a fairly expensive reconstruction of Wisner Road,” he said.
A creek in the area is designated as a scenic river, which adds heavy restrictions to any roadwork, Brown noted.
“This can get a little bit dicey,” he said. “We’re reaching out to the state of Ohio for help because this is not something we had budgeted.”
Valletto cautioned residents against moving road-closed signs.
“It’s not going to be passable for some time,” he said.
Brown wrote to State Sen. Sandra O’Brien on April 1 requesting a declaration of emergency for the township.
The township is working with the Geauga County Engineer’s Office to assess the damage and determine a course of action, he said.
“While a full assessment of the storm damage is not yet completed, it is obvious that there is going to be significant work needed to be done to restore Wisner Road to a safe condition and reopen it to the public,” Brown said. “As of right now, this portion of Wisner Road is shut down indefinitely.”
As of April 6, Brown said the township was awaiting feedback from the engineer’s office on the extent of the damage and the best path forward reopening the road.
