Resident voices his displeasure with Henry County gravel roads

Warmer temperatures and melting snow seem to be causing issues for gravel roads in Henry County. At the Henry County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Tim Batey voiced his displeasure with the gravel road conditions.

'I know that it's not due to the lack of effort of the guys or the equipment, and I'm not trying to place the blame on anyone in particular,” he said. 'It's just that the gravel is basically mud right now, and I even had to put my truck into 4-wheel drive this morning so I wouldn't get stuck.”

'How does a rock road get muddy?” he asked County Engineer Jack Hotchkiss.

Hotchkiss said he understood Batey's complaint and gave some explanation as to why in particular Kentucky Avenue and River Road were in such bad shape.

'We try to do a three-year rotation when it comes to putting rock down on the gravel roads, and with that section and all the truck traffic, we actually have to re-rock it every year,” Hotchkiss said. 'Unfortunately, we didn't get to that section until November last year.”

'With the rainfall soon after that and the amount of fines in the rock, it didn't stick the way we wanted it to.”

Hotchkiss continued to explain that the local quarry had used a different crusher for that batch of gravel, and in doing so, the gravel was dirtier than it should have been and was the cause of the issue. He hopes that the new pile of gravel from the local quarry will be better this year, but Batey isn't too sure about that.

'At what point do you consider getting better material, especially when it might mean less time on the roads fixing it up,” he said. 'It makes me wonder why we're spending so much on new equipment when our gravel roads are turning into mud roads. It's a problem, and it needs to be addressed.