Truck crashes and the suspension of ferry service between Grand Isle and Plattsburgh, New York, because of high winds and ice snarled nearly every option for getting on and off the Lake Champlain Islands on Wednesday, officials said.
Around 8 a.m., officials said a tractor-trailer jackknifed on the Vermont side of the bridge connecting Alburgh and Rouses Point, New York, due to strong winds and ice.
Then, around noon, officials said another tractor-trailer jackknifed on Route 2 near the causeway connecting Milton and South Hero in what was a nearly identical crash.
Grand Isle County Sheriff Ray Allen said both trucks had empty trailers and no one was injured in either incident.
Both crashes shut down traffic in both directions. On the Rouses Point Bridge, one lane reopened to vehicles at about 10 a.m., and the second lane reopened at about 2:30 p.m., according to officials. Both lanes reopened on the causeway at about 1:30 p.m.
At the same time, Lake Champlain Transportation Company’s ferry service between Grand Isle and Plattsburgh was suspended on Wednesday after shutting down Tuesday night — also as a result of ice and strong winds, the company said.
The Rouses Point Bridge is the only road crossing over Lake Champlain between New York and northern Vermont. It gets heavy use from trucks driving between Interstate 87 in New York and Interstate 89 in Franklin County.
Route 2 is one of only two roads connecting the Champlain Islands with the rest of Vermont. The other is Route 78, which connects Alburgh and Swanton.
Heather Stewart, operations manager for Lake Champlain Transportation, wrote in an email that it’s rare for the Grand Isle-Plattsburgh ferry service to shut down.
The route was suspended briefly on Jan. 27. Before that, it was suspended twice in 2019, and back in February 2016, she said.
Normally, boats are scheduled 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“It sure seems that we have had more strong northerly (impacts Charlotte Crossing) and southerly winds (impacts Grand Isle Crossing) this year,” Stewart said.
Photos and video on social media Wednesday showed traffic buildups as a result of both truck crashes.
Terry Tatro, a member of Alburgh’s rescue squad who responded to the crash on the bridge, said traffic was likely backed up for a mile by the time a lane was cleared.
“The wind was howling and it was blowing snow off the open lake across the road,” Tatro said when asked about the conditions. “The bridge became a little slippery.”
Evan Anderson of Alburgh said he was driving to Williston to go shopping when he hit traffic that stretched about a half-mile from the causeway in South Hero just before 1 p.m.
He estimated he was stopped for half an hour, he said.
Allen, the sheriff, said the truck crashes serve as an important reminder that truckers need to drive carefully if they have empty trailers, which are susceptible to swinging around in high winds or on slippery roads without the weight from cargo inside.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Ice, strong winds snarl transportation on Champlain Islands.