Editor’s note: This article by Chris Mays was published in the Brattleboro Reformer on Dec. 6, 2016.
[W]ILMINGTON — A community devastated by Tropical Storm Irene is joining others handpicked by the Vermont Agency of Transportation to provide information to consultants as they create a computer application.
Over a dozen residents and town officials met Monday in Wilmington for a “stakeholder meeting” entitled VTrans Methods and Tools for Transportation Resilience Planning. The project focuses on the Mad River; the north branch of the Deerfield River in Wilmington and Dover; and the Whetstone Brook along Route 9 in Brattleboro and Marlboro.
“It’s a pretty ambitious project to model all this stuff at the same time,” said Chris Campany, executive director of the Windham Regional Commission.
VTrans Policy, Planning and Research Director Joe Segale said at the beginning of the meeting that risk would be a big theme. Roadways and bridges that are most vulnerable to damage and closure were identified on several different maps.
“The answer isn’t always necessarily ‘make the bridge bigger’ — it might just be knowing that it’s in a high risk location,” Segale said. “We don’t have enough money and resources to go fix everything. We’re trying to target money where it would do the most good.”
Roy Schiff, of Milone & MacBroom, is one of the consultants who has been working on flood mitigation in the state before Irene hit in August 2011. He said he was in Wilmington and other locations “trying to help folks recover” after the storm.
Now, the plan is to reduce flood risk in the future. The project discussed on Monday had started about a year ago.
Computer simulations using maps and data determine potential problems for different communities. The hope is to improve flood-hazard mitigation.
Events modeled through the computer application explore “vulnerability,” “criticality,” and different types of infrastructure failures. The “vulnerability” of roadways involves looking at the chance of flooding or inundation, severe erosion and minor erosion, and major deposition at certain locations. The “criticality” has to do with reviewing what kinds of parallel routes, if any, are available in the event that infrastructure can no longer be used. And “failure modes” determine whether there was a partial or full closure, or temporary or complete failure in the event.
“We simulated this around the watersheds,” Schiff said, adding that when the computer application is completed, simulation results can be observed along with details on how infrastructure can be fixed, including “ballpark cost” estimates. “That will be used to initiate a design process or plan for capital projects.”
Data on damage had already been provided by the state and regional planning commissions. Schiff even found a resource in the Viking Motel in downtown Wilmington, where he stayed the night before the meeting.
“They told us about damages we didn’t know about,” he said, explaining that analysis will be better with more data.
Evan Fitzgerald, of Fitzgerald Environmental Associated, pointed out Route 100 and Coldbrook Road as places with higher scores for potential inundation.
When groups broke off and offered feedback, West Main Street was noted as an area prone to flood.
A parking lot behind the 1836 Country Store is regularly vacated in high-water events.
The importance of Route 9 also came up. The road is used by truckers and others traveling to Albany, New York, and Boston. The VTrans team will be back in about six months to discuss the application and potential mitigation plans.
“There’s going to be a giant matrix,” Schiff said. “If you have a certain vulnerability, there will be a way to mitigate that.”
Maps were left at the town office with Zoning Administrator Craig Ohlson so people could offer more feedback.
