County Roads Heavily Damaged After Rains

BY MELANIE BUCK –

Recent rains in Polk County have been causing damage to area roads, be it paved or dirt surfaces. Polk County Judge Brandon Ellison reported that the county has seen “minor flooding in places we would expect, but nothing impassible.” He added that the county was “pretty lucky that the rain came slow enough.” He explained that the ground is so saturated right now that any more rain could be very damaging to some areas.

Judge Ellison explained that it has been rough trying to make much needed repairs to damaged roads, “We can’t have sunshine more than one day in a row. For about 90 days, it rains for three days in a row with a one-day break. We just need some good weather to spend some time on the roads.” He said that all they can do at the present time is fill the holes with big rocks and oversized material, but there are no permanent repairs until the weather clears, just temporary.

He also added that anywhere there is logging activity such as the Vandervoort, Wickes, Hatfield, and Cherry Hill areas, those roads are pretty bad. “In the winter time, logging operations come from south Arkansas because we have high ground they can log. It seems it gets this way every winter but it just seems worse this winter,” said Ellison. He said potholes on gravel roads continue to get worse and that many of the roads are getting heavily damaged. “We are trying to stay ahead of it but this time of year there’s only certain things you can do,” said Ellison.

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Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

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