Culvert collapses causing a back up on Preston roadway

Photo courtesy of TJ Burbank

PRESTON – A culvert under a dugway built for safe travel has collapsed, causing water to back up making a small reservoir in Preston. The recently-completed, nearly $8 million dugway project on East Oneida is looking more like and dam than a road. It was reported a culvert got blocked causing the water to back up.

The water against the road is about 15 feet deep and a half a mile long. If it should give way, it would decimate the Preston City wastewater treatment plant. There is also concern it could damage Highway 91, a main thoroughfare into the city of Preston.

Preston Mayor Dan Keller said he’s checked the progress on efforts to slow the water from going into Worm Creek and efforts to increase the flow going out of the dammed water.

“They put a camera in the culvert and found it’s partially collapsed,” he said. “Consolidation Irrigation Company has shut down the water coming out of Glendale Reservoir slowing the water from going into the blocked culvert.”

Keller said last time he checked the dammed water he was told it dropped four inches. The mayor said that part of East Oneida is in the county.

Keller and Associates, an engineering firm from Pocatello, was the company that oversaw the project.

Nathan Cleaver, an engineer at Keller’s, was headed to Preston to check out the situation. He confirmed part of the culvert had collapsed, but he heard they had pushed some pipes through the culvert and the blockage was draining.

All hands were on deck with county officials and their road crew trying to solve the water back-up issues.

Warren Wild, the Franklin County Emergency Service director, said they are quite concerned about the stopped-up water and they are trying to figure out what to do.

“I drove out there this morning to see what is going on and there is a lot of water backed up,” he said. “They are working to get it unplugged. I met with commissioners today and they may be using pumps to lower the water levels by now.”

Everyone is busy working on a solution to get the water down and to keep it from going over the top.

“It has to raise another 30 to 40 feet to run over the road,” he said. “If that were to happen, we would be in trouble.”

A flood is a common occurrence this time of year, but generally not as bad as it is this year. The snow is not melting much today so area streams are down. If the temperature stays down the water may recede some more.

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