RT. 629 CLOSE: A DAM MESS

January 7, 2021

Route 629 over Healy’s Mill Pond near Hartfield has been closed since 2006 as VDOT and the Middlesex County Board of Supervisors were then unable to come to an agreement as to who was responsible for funding repairs to the dam and road over the mill pond. GPS directional information has continued for 15 years to send visitors down the dead-end road, causing a hardship to the Piankatank River Golf Club and others located on the road. (Photo by Larry Chowning)

Golf club rep asks officials for routing fix

by Larry Chowning –

The dead ends on both sides of Route 629 (Stormont Road) over Healy’s Mill Pond near Hartfield have been dead ends since February 2006 when Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) closed the road to through traffic.

Healy’s Mill Pond dam failed a six-month VDOT safety inspection in 2006. The report stated there were “severe cracks” in the dam’s concrete box culvert, which runs underneath the road. Route 629 has been closed to through traffic for 15 years and as it sits in disrepair debate as to who should pay to fix it continues to this day and the price tag has continued to go up.

At the Dec. 1 Middlesex County Board of Supervisors (MCBS) meeting the ongoing dead end issue involving Middlesex County and VDOT resurfaced when John Fleet Jr. of Piankatank River Golf Club wrote the board a letter.

“I write you about a longtime situation that surely someone can solve,” wrote Fleet. “Since the closure of Rt. 629/Healy’s Mill Pond, we (Piankatank River Golf Club) have been victims of GPS and other directional routing models that the general public use to locate places they are not familiar.”

Since the road closed, golf course officials have been trying to get VDOT and others to change the GPS directional information…

Pick up a copy of this week’s paper or click through below for a timeline History of closure of Route 629.