FARMINGTON — RSU 9 will reroute school buses to avoid travel over the lower end of Whittier Road due to river erosion that threatens to close that area.

School buses will travel on Whittier Road as far as Kemp Field and turn around, David Leavitt, director of Support Services at RSU 9, said. Buses will also pick up students at the southern end of Whittier Road where it intersects with Route 156, also called Lucy Knowles Road. There is a day care there and students on that end of Whittier will have to walk to that point, he said.

Leavitt thought there were about eight students on that portion of road who would need to be picked up there. Rerouting the buses is expected to cost the school district an extra $28,000 as buses travel through Farmington Falls to Route 2 to reach the high school, which is off Whittier Road, and middle and elementary schools in Farmington.

“It will mean longer rides for students from Chesterville, New Sharon and special needs students,” he said Thursday.

Leavitt said the decision to reroute the buses now rather than waiting for the road section to be closed came after he spoke with Denis Castonguay, director of Farmington’s Public Works Department. Castonguay indicated it was a matter of time before the road is closed. It didn’t make sense to start school and reroute the buses after a week or two, he said.

“We redid the bus runs and will not use that portion of road,” he said.

The change is apparently for the long term. The town is expected to complete an environmental study on the river’s salmon habitat before receiving federal funding, he said.

Tropical Storm Irene wreaked havoc on the riverbank in August 2011 and rains this past spring eroded the banking to just feet from the road. Selectmen posted a weight limit on the section of road to prevent damage from heavy vehicles while they looked at possible solutions, including building a new road in case the town didn’t receive federal funding to stabilize the banking this year.

It’s not a matter of if but when Whittier Road collapses, Town Manager Richard Davis said previously, while anticipating the potential for more weather damage before next June.

The riverbank stabilization work needs to be completed during the annual low water between July 15 to Sept. 30. The town needs Federal Emergency Management Agency approval by late August to complete the work this year.

abryant@sunjournal.com

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