On Sunday morning, April 23, a portion of the Old Indian Trail town roadway in Milton collapsed and slid down a steep hill towards the CSX railroad tracks. The town immediately closed the road going north and is only allowing local traffic to access their homes from the south.

Supervisor Scott Corcoran said he is not certain why it collapsed, “but I’m assuming over time it’s because of rain, rain, rain. There was a little sinkhole that was starting to form around that area and last year, John (Alonge – Highway Superintendent), patched it and then it gave way that day.” Corcoran said CSX had to clear a small amount of debris off the tracks to allow their trains to travel safely through the area.

Corcoran said the town owns the road itself but does not own the east and west sides, which are owned by the landowners. CSX also owns a portion of the land that goes up the hillside that meets the landowners’ sections.

“You get CSX, you get the property owners and you get the town all involved, so it is not that easy to determine (ownership),” he said.

Corcoran said town engineers came out to look at the situation in order to determine who owns what section of land, who will pay for what work and to see what it will take to fix the road.

“It is not just something simple to go in there and throw some dirt over the side of the hill to fix it” he said. “It’s not easy because there are a lot of layers of loose shale that could slide off at any time.”

Corcoran said this is a big issue “as far as the residents who need to get in and out of there and have basic deliveries and fire and ambulance services. We’re going to do our best to try to get it done, in conjunction with the homeowners and CSX and get it fixed as quickly as one can (but) these things can take time.”

The collapse happened a little north of Patrick and Maryanne Quick’s driveway, saying they now have to drive south on another portion of unpaved and dangerous roadway to get out to Route 9W.

The couple said, “It’s a dangerous mess and the engineers are going to have to figure out a way to fix this. We, as homeowners and tax payers deserve a safe roadway and we have done nothing to create this mess.”

Patrick Quick recalled that last year a contractor, who was building steps in the park area opposite the Milton Train Station, brought in his heavy equipment using Old Indian Trail. Quick said the weight of the equipment sank part of the roadway and the contractor was not held accountable to fix it. Highway Superintendent John Alonge was informed by Quick about the condition of the road outside his driveway, as well as the condition of the road down towards the Milton Train Station. Alonge put a patch on the road outside his driveway and that is the patch that collapsed.

Quick said in the past few weeks, he saw the patched area start to open up, “and a week ago, we had a bad rain storm and the whole thing just let go. The patch tipped over and it slid down towards the train tracks.”

Alonge said he is waiting for the town’s engineers to report back on the condition of the collapsed area and what needs to be done to fix it.

“Everything right now is just in limbo, waiting for the engineers to see what we possibly can do there,” he said, adding that property ownership and the road right of way are now being researched.

Alonge said the only damage he saw from the contractor was closer to the train station. He also said that the fire department has determined that their trucks can still safely access the houses on the road.

“Everyone’s been notified and we did whatever we could and they don’t think it’s safe for us to be up there until we know more,” he said. “The problem with that road is it is an accident waiting to happen and it has washed out twice and we fixed it twice in two spots. This is not going to be that easy a fix and when it gets fixed, it’s going to be a lot of money.”