Ebb & Flow: Will the road flooding finally end in Lanesville?

An imminent refurbishing job by the City of Gloucester could finally bring an end to an undesired Lanesville tradition.

Dangerous road flooding up to 3-foot depths at the approximately 100-foot-long dip in Washington Street adjacent to "the swamp" near the intersection of Washington and Langsford streets close to the Rockport line and the dramatic aftermaths have become nearly annual traditions since my family settled just up the road over 50 years ago.

"The work to correct the drainage so the road will be passable at all times will begin in April," reports Jackie Hardy.

Much to her credit, the second-term Ward 4 councilor, along with Lanesville resident Sandy Burton, prompt that start of the repair process, and Mayor Kirk's administrative assistant, Jim Duggan, helped speed it along. The city's Engineering and Public Works Departments, in conjunction with the Conservation Commission, will carry out the project.

The inundations, which have typically occurred in winters and springs from heavy snow melt and rain run-offs, especially from hillsides and street storm drains, used to recede in four to five days.

A pair of brooks on the front and back sides of the swamp continue to drain its surplus water into a largely man-made, stone-lined sluiceway that passes under three roads and four backyards before emptying at Folly Cove Beach.

But, within the last two or three years, that drain, which is only 1 to 2 feet wide in places, has become more impeded and the flood waters in the road have stayed up much longer. The swamp seems to be claiming more of Washington Street, too.

Known as Erwin's Meadow by senior Lanesville natives such as George Johnson on Woodbury Street, where the Erwin family also has deep roots, this one-tenth of a mile-long wetland nestled between a hillside and Washington Street was once a bovine grazing area.

Two sets of solid granite gate posts adjacent to the dip in the road, and a row of weeping willows remain from that period. Another remnant, a stone bridge over the brook closest to the road, existed until a few years ago.

Around 1930, "There were many small dairy farms (in Lanesville), but the four largest were Samuel Seppala at Folly Cove, Ivory Day at the Lily Pond, John Ahola and Charles F. Young off High Street," Barbara Erkkila wrote in her "Village at Lanes Cove."

The shallowing of the brooks and the area draining less over the years led to the current swamp which has a central cauldron of muck, punctuated by sedge hummocks and red maples. A cattail field borders the cauldron to the west, while a delta dominated by winterberry does so to the east.

Besides being a big sponge, the swamp remains as one of Lanesville's chief amphibian propagation sites, while the wetland has also lately hosted at least one beaver, numerous muskrats, visiting herons, bitterns, mallards, snapping turtles, and even scattered blue-winged teals and wood ducks.

As the floods have gone on, so have the human dramas that have followed them. The manner in which many drivers repeatedly drive around the "Road Closed" signs put up by the city at the top of Butman Avenue and at the intersection of Washington and Langsford streets, and how they react at the flood site is one common scenario.

From here, one of four things can happen. One group quickly realizes that the road is closed for a good reason, and they will turn around near the flood or at the nearest driveway and speed off in frustration.

A second group slowly drives into the flood and then back out once they realize the water is too deep to pass through. But a third group keeps going, for whatever reason, and soon hears the swamp tell them "gotcha." They then have to abandon their stalled vehicle, wade ashore in the cold water and call for help. This can happen over and over all day long.

"I've pulled more cars and trucks out of there," said Josh LeClair, a mechanic and tow truck driver for Tally's. The unofficial alumni association of such victims, most of whom prefer anonymity, has only grown over the years and must number well over 100 today.

This writer has also done his part in helping to rescue cars and at least one driver. On Dec. 27, 1969, while on Christmas vacation from the University of Massachusetts, I donned scuba gear and connected a towing cable to one flooded-out vehicle. A day later, early in the morning, I waded out in my wet suit bottom to another stalled car in the middle of the flood and piggy-backed the local woman stranded on its roof to dry ground.

The fourth group consists of knowledgeable drivers, such as nearby resident Jack Magner, who know their vehicle's limitations, as well as where the shallow side of the flooded road is and the flood's critical cues — especially the height of the water at the low point of the stone wall there and how far the flood extends up each end of Washington Street. They stop, study the situation, and decide if they can then drive through safely or not.

During the two floods that have occurred so far this year, the city further added to the drama by putting up a first-ever second set of barricades right at the flood in the road and even taped off the area. These obstructions were even kept up when the road was passable. Snow plows then had to turn around or back up Washington Street to Bianchini Road to get past them. Someone later drove into one of the barricades and splintered it.

Johnson approached the city through the Ward 4 councilor at the time (the name has slipped his memory) to fix the flooding problem before the sewer project in the 1990s. He was told "after they (the city and the contractor) put in the sewer, they will correct the road." The remedy then also included building up the street's shoulder and filling in the dip in the road.

Ten years later, Johnson is still waiting, and many other residents, such as Sandy Burton and Al Johnson, who have been directly impacted by recent floods, believe the needed work can't come quickly enough. The flood waters have backed up onto Burton's property, and he fears these will also undermine the access road to his home. "To me, there should only be one outcome, and that is to fix the problem, period!"

Al Johnson, who lives at the corner of Washington Street and Butman Avenue, would love to see the flooding problem "get fixed because of the snowball effect it has on the Butman Avenue traffic where my kids play. It's a public road, and as a taxpayer, why shouldn't the city fix it?"

Bill Thoms, another resident who lives close to the flood zone, says, "The road is getting worse every year. If the city can't keep the road safe, then make it a dead end street."

Photos

Tally's tow-truck driver Jon Stuart secures another victim to which the flooded road said "Gotcha" the night before. Special