When Wayne Simmons saw the damage a raging brook had done to the Trans-Canada Highway, he immediately grew concerned about the road that stretched to the end of his nearby farm.
The road located on the Hammond Farm reaches into the eastern end of the farm’s expanse and also crosses over the same brook that ripped apart the Trans-Canada Highway in a deluge Saturday morning.
Simmons, who co-owns the farm with his two brothers, went directly to the section of the dirt road where it crosses the brook and found it was still intact at around 9:30 a.m. The waters were raging, though, and the sandy bank was being eaten away by the rushing waters.
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“We thought we might be able to allow access to the road for emergency vehicles that couldn’t get through on the highway,” he said.
That was soon not an option. By noon, it became obvious the eroding forces of the raging brook being fed by heavy rains and significant snowmelt in the mild temperatures were going to prevail.
“We knew then we were going to lose our road,” he said. “It was just a matter of when.”
When it was checked again at around 3 p.m., a section of the road about 50 feet across and roughly 20 feet deep was gone. The amount of water and the amassing debris was no match for the infrastructure trying to drain it off.
The culvert underneath the road was the same size as the one that was under the portion of the highway that foundered, said Simmons. He figures they will have to put a larger one back when the road is fixed.
“Water is an amazing thing and has a lot of power,” he said.
Fortunately, the farm doesn’t use the road in winter, but Simmons said it has to be repaired by early April when it will be needed again to access the fields on the other side.
“We’ve been told there will be some sort of disaster relief fund set up and we hope this will fall under that and we can get some help because it’s going to be a fairly big undertaking to repair this,” said Simmons.
In the meantime, Simmons does have some safety concerns with the washout.
“Although this is private property, we do have people on snowmobiles come through this way sometimes,” he said.
To alert anyone who happens to come through the area. Simmons has cut down large trees to block access to the heavily damaged road and has put up bright yellow caution tape to warn of the imminent peril should they go beyond the barriers.
The gate at the eastern end of the property has also been closed off and blocked off.
