Rainy season takes toll on county roads

Naturally, 35.14 inches of rainfall on those roads over the past four months has led to some unexpected mudbogging in Madison County.

There have been road closings, recurring pipe problems, trees in roadways, ditches that repeatedly fill with debris, drainage problems that only show up when the weather is at its worst.

BOC chairman Anthony Dove and fellow commissioners heard Jan. 4 from several residents of Waggoner’s Grove Church Road, a Madison County dirt road. They spoke of an enormous puddle, a road that turns into a river that cars, trucks and buses can’t get down. The road has turned into a play place for motorists with four-wheel drive vehicles. And commissioners urged the residents to get license numbers for anyone who tears up the road, adding that it’s criminal property damage to do so.

“Every eighth of a mile they tear up is about $1,500,” said Dove.

While gravel has been put on the road, it’s not been enough residents say, adding that they need a good three-to-four-inch coating of gravel to make a difference.

Dove said keeping up with road problems has been a monumental challenge over the past few months. He said the road department has worked long hours to try to take care of weather-related problems, but often a problem is fixed, then a heavy deluge wipes out the work that was done.

Dove said that road ditches are often filled with a silty mud that doesn’t dry out. Clearing those ditches includes hauling off that silty debris.

“The fall is usually when you can get roads ready for the winter,” said BOC chairman Anthony Dove. “But this fall was the wettest we’ve seen.”

Still, Dove said he prefers water problems to drought.

“I’ll take these headaches over a drought,” he said.

In other road matters, the board agreed to re-bid the paving of Sims Kidd Road. Dove reported that the county should get some state assistance for that project, but a Department of Transportation official wanted to see extra reinforcement for heavy truck traffic on the road. The board agreed re-bid the project with a “subgrade reclamation” included, which Dove said will help strengthen the road for truck traffic.