NEW YORK -- Northeastern states struggling to rebuild hundreds of roads and dozens of bridges after Hurricane Irene are facing another natural threat: winter.
The end of construction season is fast approaching in New England and upstate New York. By November, it will be too cold to lay asphalt, and by December snow and ice will cover the mountains, leaving towns dangerously isolated and possibly dissuading tourists during the region's ski season. Vermont officials said Monday they are renting quickly built, military-style temporary bridges as a stopgap measure.
"We're going to be into winter before we know it," Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin told reporters last week. "We've got a lot of highways to rebuild, bridges to rebuild, before snow starts to fly in Vermont."
Raging floods gouged and closed more than 300 local roads and state routes in Vermont and damaged at least 22 bridges in the state, marooning people for days in at least 13 towns. Irene ripped another 150 roads in neighboring New York state. Some of the washed-out roads have gaping gullies 30 feet deep.
Road building experts say that if the work isn't done by mid-November, winter's cold, ice and snows will prevent any substantial progress until after the spring thaws.
The consequences could be serious: residents forced to make 30-mile detours -- on mountain roads, some of them unpaved-- to the nearest grocery store or doctor, businesses struggling for customers and a possible hit to the state's all-important winter tourism.
To help Vermont get an early start, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he will authorize $5 million in "quick-release" rebuilding funds. Damage to the state's federally funded highways alone is expected to top $125 million, LaHood said.
The state owns 360 feet of temporary bridge sections and plans to install them on key spans before winter, Michael Hedges, structures program manager at the Vermont Agency of Transportation, told the Associated Press.
It is also negotiating leases and rent-to-own contracts with three companies to bring in military-style "Bailey bridges," Hedges said. The bridges, made up of 10-foot sections of metal decking, may have to serve for 4 or 5 years until the state can finish permanent repairs, he said.
In New York's Adirondack Mountains, quiet summer brooks turned into torrents that ripped massive holes in the two primary routes around the winter destinations of Lake Placid, Whiteface Mountain and Saranac Lake-- economic lifelines as the winter sports season approaches.
Both lanes of Route 73, the easiest way for people from the south to get to the mountains, were sliced clean through in some places, leaving jagged splinters of asphalt dangling over gravel, dirt and rushing water.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo estimated total damage to New York state at about $1 billion, but has not said how much of that is road damage.
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