Construction begins on washed out road in Accomack County

ACCOMACK Co., VA – An Accomack County road, which was the only way in and out of the Hillsborough neighborhood, was washed away by a rain storm back in September. Now, four months later, that road is finally getting reconstructed.

People who live in Hillsborough have been using a bumpy, temporary road to get in and out of their neighborhood in the mean time. Thankfully, that’s all about to change.

Chris Isdell, the Accomac Residency Administrator for VDOT said, “The contractor has started work, now they have started erosion and sediment control measures that will be followed by the actual construction of the property.”

That construction is expected to take several months to complete, and although the people living here are grateful work has finally begun, the question remained: what took so long?

Isdell explained, “What took the largest amount of time was doing the tidal searches the surveys and the right of way research.”

Hillsborough Drive used to separate a tidal saltwater creek from a freshwater pond. When the road blew out, so did a privately owned dam, which left many water front homes without water.

Dan Bradford, a Hillsborough resident said, “To me, that’s actually always been my biggest thing. My son caught his first fish in that pond. We love the pond, and we’re hoping it will come back.”

Unfortunately, the Virginia Department of Transportation is not the one in charge of building a new dam, so it seems that water most likely won’t be replenished.

Moving forward though, VDOT is taking steps to ensure a washout like this doesn’t happen again in the future.

Isdell said, “It will be the same elevation as the existing roadway. It will be a causeway with drainage pipes underneath of it to allow water flow.”

We’re told that the road is set to be back open to traffic by mid-March and as for when the entire construction project will be complete, we’re told that date is set for June.

The reconstruction project will cost just over $878,000.