Mint Springs Valley Park temporarily closed on Friday, August 9, after a failed culvert pipe made its way through the road surface at the entrance to the park following heavy rains from Tropical Storm Debby. Central Virginia saw several inches of residual rainfall during Debby’s trek north, and the high water levels forced the pipe through the pavement. This isn’t the first time this particular culvert has caused trouble. “This is the same location where the pipe was replaced in 2020,” says Albemarle’s Superintendent of Parks Jim Barbour. “However, the cause of the 2020 failure was … an old and degraded galvanized culvert pipe.” Debby’s effects also prompted the county’s swimming beaches—at Chris Greene Lake, Walnut Creek, and Mint Springs—to close until water levels fall.
Related stories
Wading in
Juandiego Wade never expected to settle down in Charlottesville, let alone be elected mayor. When Wade met with C-VILLE—in a tiny meeting room in an under-construction City Hall building—on a snowy late January morning, the mayor arrived in a heavy winter coat and hat. He had just finished shoveling snow with a neighbor. Despite the […]
Reefer madness
When Gov. Ralph Northam signed the 2021 Cannabis Control Act into law, retail sales of recreational marijuana were supposed to become legal this year. Yet, without establishing the framework for retail sales in the General Assembly, what was billed as a victory three years ago shifted into quasi-decriminalization. But some lawmakers are aiming to make […]
Winning streak
Last week, the University of Virginia swimming and diving team traveled to Greensboro, North Carolina, for the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. The women’s team returned to Charlottesville with 17 wins, six NCAA records, and a fifth-straight ACC championship title. The conference meet occurred about a month before the women’s Division I NCAA championship—a showdown with […]
