Section of Clinton River Trail washed away, closed to the public

ROCHESTER, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) – The city of Rochester is left with a major cleanup after this week's heavy rainfall wiped out a significant section of the Clinton River Trail.

On Tuesday, the city closed the trailhead between Dequindre Road and Letica Drive after the path gave way.

"About 100 linear feet of the trail and about 6 to 8 feet down is completely washed away. So, it's pretty substantial damage that's going to take some time to fix," said Rochester Director of Public Works Alek Mizikar.

Mizikar says the trail is a former railroad bed lifted up to help with drainage in the area. Though we've experienced intense rain, he never expected the trail to collapse physically.

"I was shocked. When I was getting phone calls about it I didn't think it was going to be that bad until I started seeing pictures and went out there. There are wet spots but to this magnitude, I've not heard of anything this substantial," Mizikar said.

This section of the path is currently closed to the public. The detour is stirring up a slew of emotions for those who use the trail often.

" We gotta turn around and go like a half mile back, find another way," said Drew Jeric.

Marc Mezzenga added "Things happen. You can't fault Mother Nature."

Meanwhile, Cynthia Karrandja says, "It's pretty scary that we would be here on a daily basis, and then the road just collapsed."

While water appears to be the leading cause of the washout, Mizikar says the city will launch a thorough investigation to determine whether any other factors contributed.

"We're going to have to do some substantial hydraulic and engineer review of the area and see if any other parts of the trail near where it collapsed may be in a state where it would have to be taken out as well," said Mizikar.

The city expects the investigation and cleanup to take a year, if not more. Detour maps are posted on the city of Rochester's website.