Weirs Boardwalk and RR Damage to Cost Millions to Repair

Emergency Management Funds May Help Restoration Effort

“It was like a tsunami!”

That’s how Laconia Fire Chief Kenneth Erickson yesterday described the Thursday night thunderstorms that devastated the boardwalk at The Weirs.

A section of the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad track was completely undermined. The rails were bent as though they were coat hanger wires. The granite curbs on Lakeside Avenue were thrown by the rushing waters yards away from their original location. Pavement was broken into small chunks and washed into the hole.

More than 100 feet of the wooden boardwalk west of the dockside headquarters of the M/S Mt. Washington were undermined as well. As a result the concrete supports for the walkway that overlooks the Weirs Beach docks collapsed, leaving the wood and metal fence sagging above.

City officials who viewed the damage from the lake side yesterday said it appeared even more extensive than it did from the street level.

City Manager Eileen Cabanel said that on the advice of Chief Erickson she had declared a state of emergency in the city and informed Gov. John Lynch of the situation at The Weirs.

Cindy Richards of the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division of the NH Department of Safety also visited the scene, eying the extent of the erosion along with the damage to the boardwalk and railroad tracks from a boat.

Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are scheduled to inspect the damage Monday.

"Everyone has been absolutely wonderful," Cabanel said, adding that George Bald, the commissioner of the NH Department of Resources and Economic Development that oversees tourism in the state, called to offer any assistance his agency could provide.

According to Erickson, the virtual wall of water that caused the damage occurred when water from one of - if not the heaviest – several summer rainstorms Thursday night cascaded down Tower Hill from Tower Avenue west across the locations of the NH Veterans’ Campground and the three Victorian summer homes of the veterans’ association. Marks left by the rushing water were visible on the lawns of the veterans’ homes from across Lakeside Avenue.

Erickson asked New Hampshire’s State Geologist David Wunsch to check the soil conditions on Tower Hill to determine if officials should be concerned about the stability of the slopes where the historic Victorian structures are located. According to Erickson, Wunsch felt there was no danger to the buildings’ foundations.

Two officials of the Winnipesaukee River Basin Program – Administrator Sharon McMillin and Superintendent Steve Dolloff - were also on hand early yesterday morning to meet with Paul Moynihan, Laconia’s Director of Public Works, to assess any damage to the program’s 42-inch sewer interceptor under Lakeside Avenue. Although a portion of the sewer main, which handles between 400,000 and 500,000 gallons of sewage per day, was exposed it was not deemed compromised or damaged.

Cabanel said the first priority of the emergency response was to stabilize the area around the sewer line to protect it in the event of more foul weather. Once the sewer line was secured, crews would begin to remove the debris — fencing, railings, pipes and brick — from beneath the boardwalk in order to more accurately assess the extent of the erosion and damage, she said.

Cabanel, who was meeting with representatives of Primex, the city's insurance carrier, late yesterday afternoon, said that in 1982 it cost $750,000 to construct about 30-feet of the boardwalk, which in current dollars would amount to about $1.3-million.

She said a significant stretch of the boardwalk appears to have been undermined and damaged but stressed that it was too soon to accurately estimate the extent or the repair costs.

Cabanel said the Winnipesaukee River Basin Project was responsible for the sewer line and the NH Department of Transportation (DOT) for the railway line while the balance of the restoration effort would fall to the city.

"It’s not chump change," she said, adding that she had already begun exploring sources of state and federal funding for the work.

Brian Lombard of the DOT’s Bureau of Rails and Transit was also on hand yesterday. He indicated his agency would assist with the process of securing emergency funding for the railroad portion of the repair work.