The road into Scalloptown Park covered with mud after a slide sometime overnight Sunday, March 30. Credit: EG News
A mudslide stopped train service through East Greenwich and closed the road into Scalloptown Park Sunday after heavy rain that started Saturday evening. Public Works Director Joe Duarte said the slide happened sometime overnight; someone called police to report the slide Sunday morning.
The slide washed down toward Greenwich Cove. Mud did not cover the tracks, but Amtrak cancelled service due to possible instability in that area, according to Duarte. Amtrak’s John Mandeville said the plan was to bring in some fill for the area near the tracks. He said train service would resume sometime Sunday, with trains slowing to 30 mph when they go through.
A view of the slide from the train tracks looking toward Greenwich Cove. Credit: John Mandeville/Amtrak
He said this was the only stretch of Amtrak track closed because of the heavy rains.
The road into Scalloptown would be closed at least into Monday, Duarte said. The Dept. of Environmental Management would be contacted, Mandeville said, because charcoal ash used in earlier times to build railroad track beds was in the mud that slid down toward the cove.
The other areas of town affected by the rain were Division Street by Overbrook Lane, Shady Hill Road by South Road, and Shippee Road, but as of Sunday around noon, there was no real damage, “just areas where the edges of roads had washed out a little bit,” Duarte said.
Credit: EG News
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