IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Copar shares free load of gravel with local drivers

Spills rock over road surface at junction of Routes 216 and 91

Junction of Routes 216 and 91 (spill photos by Steve Dubois)

By Will Collette

On Friday morning, one of the notorious Copar quarry’s numerous purple trucks spilled a major portion of its load of gravel all over the road surface at the intersection of Routes 216 and 91 near the Bradford Elementary School.

One of the leading Copar opponents, Steve Dubois, was on the scene as he was heading for work and caught the aftermath of the spill on his cell phone camera. 

He also called police who, he said, took more than half an hour to respond. Meanwhile, according to Dubois, motorists, especially motorcyclists were exposed to danger. Dubois reported the sharp gravel flattened one of his tires.

According to the Westerly Sun, the police say Copar driver Joseph Liskiewicz of Preston, CT didn’t know that a rock had jammed into his tailgate, preventing it from closing fully. Liskiewicz was cited for the spill and is to appear before the Traffic Tribunal in Wakefield.

For reasons not explained, the Copar truck was taking the load of gravel from its Bradford quarry to its Charlestown quarry on Route 91. 

Under town ordinance, Charlestown has the right to inspect the premises any time it wishes to determine Copar’s compliance with the law. 

This is a power Charlestown has never exercised, even though it has passed a sternly worded resolution against Copar and is planning to pass another one at Monday night’s Town Council meeting.

The Sun’s account said there was a pile of small pebbles measuring 150 feet long and 3 feet wide, mostly in the bicycle lane, but also in the travel lane. That account is not entirely consistent with Dubois’ photos and other eye-witness accounts.

One witness who was also passing through the area heading for work told me it seemed to her like ill-timed road construction work.

Dubois reported that a clean-up crew from Copar showed up before the police and started sweeping rock off the main road surface.

In an e-mail, Dubois noted, “they speed down our narrow roads and spew stuff out of their trucks all the time.”

When I spent a couple of hours outside the gates of Copar’s Bradford facility, I saw trucks going at a high rate of speed on Route 216 and, when exiting and entering the quarry site, the trucks sometimes seem on the verge of tipping over. 

I photographed one fully loaded truck (left) with no cover over its load.

All of Copar’s trucks, and apparently most of its workforce, come from Connecticut where Copar and its company executives live.

To learn more about the Copar quarries, click here.

To learn more about the community opposition to Copar, click here.