MINOT – If they don’t mind the ruts and bumps, drivers are welcome to use the dirt road through Martha Verrill’s field for another couple of weeks.

Drivers have discovered that the single-lane dirt path through Verrill’s farm makes a handy shortcut around state crews as they work to repair Woodman Hill Road. A section of road collapsed in August when heavy rains washed out a culvert just below Verrill’s house.

She doesn’t mind the traffic, but she wishes drivers would slow down.

“We’ve put up signs and talked nicely,” Verrill said Wednesday. “I’ve had other people tell me I should put up a gate. But I can’t do that.”

She’s seen just about every type of vehicle crossing her field.

“We’ve had firetrucks, tow trucks and all sorts of emergency vehicles,” she said. “We’ve had delivery trucks, UPS and DHL, and logging trucks all go by. About a month ago, I thought I heard motorcycles. I went out and looked and here comes a whole parade of Harleys.”

The official detour takes traffic off Woodman Hill Road south onto Merrill Road for 2.2 miles, then onto Route 124 for another 2.6 miles.

Verrill’s detour cuts that trip down to less than half a mile. It starts south of the construction on Route 119 and follows an old railroad grade off to the east. A sharp left turn cuts into the middle of Verrill’s pasture and the dirt path rises up, past her home and her neighbor’s and back to Woodman Hill Road.

It’s not the only way around the construction.

“Everybody in town has a shortcut they use,” said Jim Paradis, the soccer director for Minot. But they tend to keep those to themselves. That’s how Verrill’s shortcut began – a secret among neighbors and crews working on the road.

Verrill and her neighbors have put up signs warning drivers that they’re on a private road. Minot Recreation uses one of Verrill’s fields for children’s soccer practice a few afternoons each week, and she’s worried about the children.

“And it’s only one lane, so there’s not room for more than one car at a time,” she said. “People have been good about pulling over for someone else, but then they’ve just driven off through the field.”

That’s left ruts and ruined some of the hay.

“I have a farmer who depends on that, so they need to leave it alone,” Verrill said.

“To be honest, I didn’t think this thing would take off the way it has,” she said. “I thought it would be a week or two at most. But the work keeps going on and on.”

Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine Department of Transportation, said the work on Woodman Hill Road is due to wrap up early in November. Crews this week have finished pouring new footings to support a concrete box culvert. They should begin installing that culvert this week, he said.

The culvert washed away Aug. 16 after a sudden, localized thunderstorm dumped 5 inches of water in less than two hours. The storm damaged parts of Routes 119 and 124, but crews were able to reopen Route 124 south of the West Minot intersection later that week. Woodman Hill Road has been open to local traffic only ever since.