Visitors to Ames Nowell State Park on Thursday may not be able to access the west side of the park while emergency repairs are made to a washed out section near Cleveland’s Pond.
Years of stormwater runoff has carved deep gouges into a heavily traversed trail junction along the pond’s southwest edge.
Park officials will use crushed rocks to level off the area, providing a temporary fix while they develop a longer-term solution to the erosion problem, officials from Abington and the Department of Conservation and Recreation confirmed this week.
The work means visitors who park in the main lot Thursday won’t be able to access the trails west of the pond. The western side of the state park can still be accessed via entrance points off Chestnut Street and North Quincy Street.
A number of heavy rain storms in recent years has carved deep gouges along a sloped 20-yard section of the trail that runs from trail marker W01 down to the pond’s shoreline. The runoff has been depositing silt into the pond creating almost a small beach.
The work site is also one of the busiest sections of the 600-acre state park, located just off the western edge of the dam that holds back Cleveland Pond. Trail marker W01 is the main starting point for multiple trails that wind through the park’s western side.
Nearly two years ago, a man in his 70s tripped while maneuvering through the washedout stretch and suffered a head injury that required an emergency response by Abington Fire.
In January, park officials put up sawhorses and signs warning people of the dangerous footing.
The Abington Conservation Commission gave the state permission to make emergency repairs, Commission Chairman Paul Bunker said. The state will have to return to the commission when it has a plan for a long-term fix, which may include installing new drainage infrastructure.
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