Crews kick River Road flood clean up into high gear as street surface buckles

FALMOUTH — It was clean-up time on the banks of the Rappahannock River on Monday.

The river spilled its banks over the weekend leaving large debris like trees covering the River Road in Falmouth. Large dump trucks, earth movers, and chainsaw operators were called into to remove the debris while the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office turned away motorists hoping to use the popular cut-through street that links Route 3 with Routes 1 and 17.

The thoroughfare carries 5,700 cars per day, according to a 2017 traffic count. 

Officials with the sheriff’s office and the Virginia Department of Transportation say the situation here is so bad, it could take a week or more to clean up.

Now that the roadway was submerged, authorities are worried about the stability of the pavement on River Road.

“I know my superintendents and I put some eyes on a few areas this morning where the road is actually buckling up in a few places,” said Kyle Bates, from VDOT’s Fredericksburg residency.

The worst hit in this flooding, as in most flooding cases, is Historic Port of Falmouth, a county park popular with swimmers. After the flood waters receded, the damage to the parking lot and signage in the park became clear.

“This flooding down here is the worst that I’ve seen during my tenure at the sheriff’s office,” said Stafford County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jason Forman, who’s overseeing the clean-up effort for the department.

Amy’s Cafe in Falmouth remained open and was not affected by the flood waters. It offered an escape for the workers and residents of Falmouth bottom that spend their Monday pumping water from the interior of their homes.

The flood waters came from the west, where upriver in Culpeper, that area got more than two inches of rain Friday and Saturday. The water quickly rushed downstream and by Saturday night the river crested at 25 feet.

This is the second bout of flooding on the Rappahannock earlier this month. On June 3, a major rainstorm caused the Rappahannock to spill its banks, however, the flooding was not as severe as this past weekend’s flooding. 

In the northern portion of Stafford County, the rains also washed out a portion of Bells Hill Road when a slope failed. It caused the concrete to buckle. 

The road is still closed and told us today that the fix will be both expensive and could take months.