CM rail trail washout

It's gonna be a while before you can walk by the B42/N62 milepost near Oakdale on the W. Boyslton section of the rail trail:

http://www.telegram.com/article/2009050 ... /COULTER03

Horses were set up Saturday morning, 05/09 to block off the parking lot, and barriers were set on the path that leads to the causeway where the failure happened.

The link does not work

The article requested can not be found! Please refresh your browser or go back. (WT,20090508,COULTER0301,905088955,AR).

Sorryboutdat:
1) Try http://www.telegram.com/article/2009050 ... 9050889955
If that doesn'y work, then
2) google <worcester telegram>, go to their website and enter <west boylston rail trail> in the search bar, and you'll get 4 hits, maybe more as time goes on.

Our guys and town DPW worked on preventing this, but beavers will be beavers and washed out the culvert. I'm not sure if the mile post survived, I haven't been to the area yet for work but from the video and pictures I've seen 30+ feet washed out it goes about 15-20' deep.

Checked it out yesterday at work. The culvert that went was not the one I thought it was. so the mile marker was about 100 meters away from the break. The area that broke used to be a sluiceway to a mill that was in the area. The rumor at work is it's going to be awhile before the section gets repaired.

It's apparently not officially open yet, but there is access to the CM Rail Trail past the Oakdale causeway breach. The failure section seems to have been rebuilt with -- at least from the vantage point of the footpath -- a mix of cut stone and rip-rap facings and probably corrugated culvert underneath the footpath. One of the old mill races is now dry and the impoundment level is greatly reduced, with good flow through the culvert. The old concrete culvert west of the B 42/N 62 milepost is no longer submerged. That culvert had become obstructed by either trash or a beaver lodge, but there is adequate water flow through it, as well, so chances of a repeated failue have been significantly reduced.
There are places that still show the damage, but work on the path and adjacent drainage is remarkably good-looking. It seems like some of the old stonework from the mill race that was washed away got retrieved and repurposed as seating, east of the breach.

The Trail is still Closed but the Town of West Boylston doesn't patrol their section of trail. There is still heavy equipment working in the area so stay away. The rumor is it will be opened on the 26th.

It's official the trail has a grand reopening on Saturday.

There's a new beaver dam a-building just northwest of the repair culvert. Hopefully it'll get disrupted. Wachusett Greenways has been e-mailed.