The washout just downstream from Kinneytown Dam in Seymour on Aug. 22.
SEYMOUR – Officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT) said they do not have an estimate for when train service will be restored to the Valley, following the Aug. 18 floods that caused mudslides in Seymour and knocked out the ground beneath sections of train tracks.
MTA Metro-North Railroad President Catherine Rinaldi and ConnDOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto visited one of the washout sites on Thursday (Aug. 22), just downstream from the Kinneytown Dam, and told reporters that budget and timeline estimates would be coming in the next several weeks.
“Once we’re actually out here starting the work I think we’ll have a much better sense as to how long it’s going to take to complete it,” Rinaldi said.
Jasmine Wright
MTA Metro-North Railroad President Catherine Rinaldi speaks to reporters on Aug. 22.
The floods on Aug. 18 caused several washouts, including the one pictured above, when water levels rose in the Naugatuck River and caused the ground beneath the rails to buckle. Another washout, closer to Beacon Falls, was estimated by an MTA official as being about a quarter of the size of the one pictured.
Buses have been running along the line in lieu of trains since Monday evening. Eucalitto said that arrangement will likely continue across the entire Waterbury Branch until the washouts are fixed. He said it doesn’t make sense to run a mixture of bus and rail service.
“We won’t be able to move any (rail) traffic,” Eucalitto said. “This is smack-dab in the middle, so we’re not just going to do a shuttle up to one station. We need the whole line open for safety.”
The pictured washed-out tracks run in between the Kinneytown Dam and a canal that flows over the Coe Pond Dam and into Coe Pond. In a press conference on Monday, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Commissioner Katie Dykes told reporters that inspectors had been sent to the two dams because of the floods.
Jasmine Wright
Another view of the washout.
In March, an engineering report warned that structural deficiencies “could lead to a breach of the Coe Pond Dam at any time.” Click here for a story.
However, Eucalitto told The Valley Indy that the dam held up during the flood, and that there is no increased risk of a breach.
“For right now, during the storm, there’s no damage to that dam,” Eucalitto said.
He said the inspections did not turn up any new concerns.
“The Coe Pond Dam is a FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)-regulated dam. So FERC sent investigators up right after the storm, they did an investigation, they said there was no structural concerns,” Eucalitto said.
The cost for the repairs currently falls on ConnDOT. Eucalitto said that if costs exceed a certain threshold, then the federal government may reimburse them for 75 percent of the costs due to a federal emergency declaration approved on Wednesday (Aug. 21).
Rinaldi encouraged riders to use the available buses for the duration of the rail closure and said MTA and ConnDOT are working together to reopen as quickly as they can.
“We appreciate everybody’s patience during outages at this time. It’s not fun for anybody, but we’re here to tell people we’re going to get it fixed as soon as possible,” Rinaldi said.
A video below shows another brief look at the washout, with the Kinneytown Dam visible in the background.
