CAVENDISH, Vt. — The mission is to rebuild a road that is now a 65-foot-deep, 141-foot-long hole in a hillside in this New England town.
In the wake of Tropical Storm Irene, the call went out from the Vermont National Guard for heavy equipment and personnel. The Ohio National Guard, among other states, responded with ready units.
In less than two days, Joint Task Force Engineer — which consists of the Ohio Army National Guard's 1192nd and 1191st Engineer Companies, located in Portsmouth and Newton Falls, respectively; Support Company and Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 216th Engineer Battalion, both located in Woodlawn; and the Ohio Air National Guard's 200th Red Horse Squadron, located in Port Clinton — arrived with 33 vehicles and 84 Guard members.
The 131st Engineer Company of the Vermont National Guard and JTF Engineer are working from dawn to dusk in Cavendish to complete this mission. The coordination between Vermont working out the engineering and the Ohio National Guard providing dump trucks (20, 20-ton and three, 10-ton) has worked seamlessly.
"Vermont was ready for us and accepted us. As soon as we got here, they had everything set up and ready to go," said 1st Lt. Timothy Sutter, a member of the 1191st Engineer Company and Batavia, Ohio, resident, who is also the project officer-in-charge. "They have treated us like one of their own."
With the JTF Engineer equipment and personnel now in Vermont, Capt. Annaliese Baumer, 131st Engineer Company commander, said the project will take 3,500 20-ton dump truck loads back and forth from quarries to the job site. The project will require so much material that quarry workers had to blast to fill the need of 70,000 tons of rock.
The main concern for Capt. Tanner Dunlap — of the 1192nd Engineer Company and a Ravenna, Ohio, resident, who is serving as JTF Engineer commander — is time.
"We estimate this project will take six weeks but our orders don't extend that long. Our job is to support the Vermont National Guard and we will get done as much as we can while we are here," Dunlap said.
This will prove to be a difficult task as one round trip to get material takes two hours. The quarries where the material is picked up from are difficult to get to, as the roads that would go directly to them have been washed out. Dunlap expressed that the safety of his troops on site is also a main concern. There is a lot of material they have to bring in, and there are also site hazards that are of concern. The hill on the other side of the job site looks like it may give away and create a landslide at any moment. Dunlap said that Ohio National Guard members will do what they can, and if any issues come up while they are working, they will have to address them at that point.
The 131st is split between Dover and Cavendish, with both working on state Route 131. The project is massive and without the heavy trucks and operators from Ohio that are running 12 hours per day, the 131st would not be this far along in the schedule. It is the magnitude of projects across the state that has brought welcomed support from Ohio. The multistate mission being led by JTF Green Mountain Spirit continues, and many National Guard members are working diligently to ensure reliable access to towns and residents across the state. |
