County Inspector for Rt. 202 Project: 'It’s Hard to Say' When Towaco Work Will End

The first phase of a county-sponsored project to upgrade a drainage system near the Whitehall Road underpass in Towaco began earlier this week, and, according to the project's chief inspector Chris Wolf, could take longer than originally expected.

Wolf said that the project, which according, to the town website is set to be completed around September 22, might be more fluid than originally anticipated, citing some unexpected utility lines as a cause.

"Right now, it's hard to say," he said. "We planned two to three weeks originally. We started [September 1] with the crossing at 202 and the Whitehall overpass, an the main problem is that there are a bunch of utilities to deal with. We're about half way across the road and we have three gas lines we have to cross, so it's really hard to say. We have a plan that might get revised as the project goes on."

Wolf also addressed the traffic issues created by the project, which is currently located on Route 202 in Towaco and causing delays similar to the ones drivers experienced in the county's more recent public works project.

"Unfortunately, right now, there is no real detour around the section we're doing," he said. Once the underpass is closed, things should pick up, hopefully."

Despite the issues, Wolf stressed the importance of the drainage upgrade, calling it a "long standing problem."

 "There was a situation where the drainage actually goes under the railroad tracks and that's were the problem is," he said. ""It's an old system that was no longer functioning."

According to Wolf, the drainage problem is a result of the age of the system, and not born of a lack of maintenance or structural failures.

"We ran some cameras through the drainage system to see if we could clean them out, but there appears to be a lot of debris jammed in the system," he said. "There was a log in there. We would have had to shut down the road, taken out the rail and clean the system out. That's not going to happen."

The county project includes an upgrade of existing drainage systems, as well as milling and paving on Route 202.