New London Road repairs in works in works for washed out section

MT. PLEASANT – Crews are working to repair and replace a section of New London Road (County Road X23) closed since Aug. 11. The road was closed because a portion of the land began breaking up and sliding down the hillside to the Skunk River due to ground saturation from heavy rains that took place late June and early July.

“It is an Emergency Relief project, we had part of the road slide off. We have been in the works with the Federal Government and the Department of Transportation on getting funds to repair this section of the road,” Henry County Engineer Jake Hotchkiss said in a Board of Supervisors meeting Thursday morning. “In that process, the area was declared a disaster, along with other areas that were declared disasters from the June-July rains that this area received.

“With those ER repairs, we constructed a temporary gravel surface road that has allowed us to get traffic moving in that area. This is a necessary route to get us through the winter. And it is better than having a long detour.

Hotchkiss said that the county is working with the Iowa Department of Transportation on plans for a permanent repair.

“We are in the process of setting up preliminary plans with the DOT, which will set the scope for the repair of the road,” Hotchkiss said. “We are targeting a late-summer construction project in progress to get this area repaired and replaced next summer. We are working on plans that will make the hill in the area more stable and lower in profile.”

Workers have surfaced a temporary road in the area with a subbase of gravel and rock to harden the weakened soil.

The route runs south on New London Road, joining Highway 16 in Lee County. After Highway 16, the route turns north on 280th Avenue (Bridgeport Road) and then west on County Road J20, leading back to Henry County and to the north side of the road closure.