The Henderson County Fiscal Court is weighing options on how best to fix a portion of Green River Road #1 which slid into Green River in early February, leaving the road impassable.
The road slide occurred on a section of the gravel road between its intersection with Tillman-Bethel Road on one side and its intersection with Tscharner Road on the other.
County Engineer Nick Stallings said that he received a phone call at 7 p.m. on Feb. 9 about a possible slide in the area. When he arrived, he saw some of the roadway had collapsed into the river. Two days later, the slide had stretched across the road, he said.
He said the slide occurred at a bend in the river where water pressure is strong, and over the years, there have been numerous slides in that area of the road.
Stallings offered three solutions to fix the problem.
One is to rebuild the collapse to roadworthy conditions. He described rebuilding options, each using engineering designs and heavy materials to re-form the section of the road and reinforce the area around the slide.
Benching, sheet filing with tiebacks, sheet filing without tiebacks and soil nailing are all engineering techniques that would create a reinforced wall along this portion of the river. Prices range from benching at $378,000 to soil nailing at $437,000, Stallings said, adding that those numbers could range plus or minus 20%.
A second solution was to relocate the roadway, moving the road away from the river into forest land. That cost is listed at $144,000, Stallings said.
A final solution is to abandon the roadway, meaning that the road would be closed at points on either side of the road slide. On the east side, Stallings proposed a closure at the road’s intersection with Tscharner Road. On the west side, he proposed a second closure at either the spot on the road where the Green River State Forest begins or at a spot just past an entrance road to the Evansville Marine Service. Stallings estimated the closures to cost $20,000.
Stallings said he has received numerous calls from residents asking what’s going to be done with the damaged roadway. He said there are signs and barrels blocking the roadway, but people tear them destroy them regularly, leaving road crews to check on the spot each morning. Judge-Executive Brad Schneider asked Stallings and Magistrate Keith Berry to contact farmers and neighbors to determine what their thoughts are before the court decides.
