River Street in Seymour (Town of Seymour photo)
SEYMOUR – Officials said flood damaged River Street will remain closed for another four-to-six weeks.
“We met with the state Department of Transportation today (Wednesday, Aug. 28) and they’re going to start working on repairing River Street next Wednesday,” said Seymour Fire Chief/Emergency Management Director Chris Edwards.
River Street, also known as Route 313, runs alongside the Naugatuck River between Derby Avenue and Route 67. It’s the only road in Seymour that remains closed after the Aug. 18 flooding that claimed the lives of two people and caused millions of dollars in property damage.
The road was badly damaged by flash flood waters from the Little River that travelled east from the area of the Klarides Village shopping center toward downtown Seymour.
A privately-owned dam at the back of the former Housatonic Wire Co. property at 109 River St. was also damaged by the water. The dam, known as Wire Mill Dam No. 2, backs up behind Allen’s Plumbing Supply, one of many stores in Seymour and Oxford that sustained damage.
The dam experienced a breach to its side wall, Edwards said.
The breach in the dam was discovered Monday morning (Aug. 19), the day after the flooding. Edwards said he was notified of the breach by the owner of Allen’s Plumbing Supply.
“We went down, checked it out with our town engineer and confirmed the breach was in a bad spot,” Edwards said.
Edwards called the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), who sent engineers that same day from its dam division to assess the damage to the side wall.
“The DEEP engineers thought the dam was going to go into failure,” Edwards said.
Edwards said the town called in an emergency contractor to fix the breach, and the dam was back-filled with concrete Tuesday, Aug. 20.
The town picked up the cost to make the emergency repairs, even though the dam is privately owned by Steve Valentine, a partner with Florida-based development company Willow Partners.
Valentine bought the 4.5‑acre property that housed the former Housatonic Wire Co., and contains two private dams, from its former owner Alex Budzinski for $1.2 million in March 2023.
The other dam on the property was not impacted by the flood, Edwards said.
Kurt Miller, Seymour’s chief administrative officer, said the town has reached out to Valentine regarding reimbursement for the dam repairs.
Miller said the town will have a cost for the repairs figured out by Friday.
The section of River Street that is closed is easy to get around and is not nearly as heavily traveled as other roads that were washed out on Aug. 18 in Oxford, Monroe, and Southbury.
Crews from the state Department of Transportation have been working around the clock making repairs.
State Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria announced on Facebook on Aug. 28 that Route 34 had been repaired on the Monroe side of the Stevenson Dam.
Contributed Photo
The area of River Street on Aug. 18 (contributed photo).
