Soft spots on gravel roads still causing problems for drivers

While heavy rains have caused some flash flooding on secondary roads, Henry County engineer Jake Hotchkiss said that road conditions have drastically improved from earlier in the spring.

'I don't think we went backward,” Hotchkiss said during a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, June 11. 'We still have some soft spots out there. They've got to heal up, and we've drilled a bunch of them, but it does just take time.”

Hotchkiss said remaining frost boils are 'manageable,” although he realizes they still catch people off guard sometimes when they are driving. Hotchkiss said they have done all the repairs they can and are working on reassessing frost boils that continue to cause problems.

Hotchkiss still is hopeful to get a flood declaration from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Engineer's Office is collecting data and documenting all flood-repair projects.

One of the biggest projects, an active slide on 310th Street, will take time and money to repair, Hotchkiss said.

'We're getting soil samples. We want to know what's out there underneath the ground that's causing the slide since it's the second time we'll be repairing it,” Hotchkiss said.

While Hotchkiss isn't sure if the slide will be eligible for flood declaration, he said they have to keep moving forward on repairs.

'We don't know until we're declared,” Hotchkiss said.

310th Street will remain closed until repairs can be made.

Other roads closed for scheduled construction are the W55 Franklin Avenue bridge and the J20 bridge by Lowell.

Last week, the Roads Department spent the better part of the week repairing flood damage. they hauled rock to Agency Road and 260th Street for flood repair work, sent a crew to 253rd Street (Oakland Mills) to clean up sand and started picking up barricades.

They installed crossroad pipe on 110th Street east of Oasis Avenue, sprayed weeds, resumed mowing shoulders on pavements and gravel roads and worked on signs.