Housatonic Railroad

Berm breach on April 5, 2010

and rebuilt by April 7, 2010

At about 5pm on April 5th, observant neighbors to the Housatonic River noticed "stuff" floating down the river and the water turned brown with sediment.

Looking from the Pomeroy Ave bridge near Holmes Road.

Where a tree hung into the river, lots of "stuff" was caught.

The water from Morewood Lake had washed away part of the berm under the Housatonic Railroad's tracks.

Water from the lake continued to wash away more and more of the berm.

The Housatonic Railroad tracks were left suspended over the rushing water.

If you look carefully you can see lots of old, discarded railroad ties on the bank of Morewood Lake. Under Mass. law, leaving hazardous waste (the old ties) anywhere, let alone on the bank of a lake, is illegal. But the Housatonic Railroad doesn't answer to state law.

More old ties in the bank of the wetland and stream.

The bank to the wetland has more old ties in it.

April 7, 2010

48 hours later, the Housatonic Railroad had rebuilt the berm. They did not appear to have used any erosion control measures.

How did they calculate what size culvert was necessary to prevent a similar disaster from occurring again?

48 hours after the breach

The red arrows are pointing to the new berm that was built within 48 hours.

April 7, 2010

The white arrow is pointing to the tiny new black plastic culvert that the Housatonic Railroad installed within 48 hours of the breach.

Once the berm was built up, they ran the engine over the tracks...

very, very slowly.

It made horrible, grinding-metal noises!

After the engine made it across, you could see the tracks had sagged.