Earth, wind and water damage area roadways

SYRIA — A couple days of rain, thousands of freeze-thaw cycles and a steady dose of gravity wreaked havoc on the Virginia Department of Transportation on Wednes-day, creating an Orange County sinkhole and pulling down a chunk of rock outcropping near this Madison County town.
The rockslide covered both lanes of Route 600 in dozens of tons of dirt and debris. Madison County sheriff’s deputies discovered the slide across the shelf-road that follows the meandering Robinson River and notified VDOT. Crews arrived to find the rural route blocked by large boulders weighing as much as an estimated 17 tons apiece and yards of soil and broken rock.
“It was pretty much covered in rock when we got here,” said Wayne Sutphin, of VDOT. “We had the [front-end loader] move the debris to the side to open it up. It made some holes in the road that we’re going to have to fix, but we’ve got it open.”
Jimmy Gaar, a VDOT equipment operator, moved the massive rocks and earth.
“Some of the blocks were big and I could just move them a little bit at a time,” he said. “It was a pretty good slide.”
The road was closed for about four hours.
Near Orange, the northbound lane of U.S. 15 was closed about 4 miles north of town while VDOT crews repaired the road. Traffic was directed through the work zone by flaggers who alternated northbound and southbound traffic along the southbound lane.
The repair took six hours and caused minor delays.