County roads battered by recent rain

While recent rains have brought relief to Kansas drought conditions, they are taking their toll on county roads.

During the Jackson County Commission meeting on Monday, Linda Jackson, road and bridge superintendent, reported that all road and bridge crew members have been pulled from their current road projects to repair washouts and address other weather-related issues.

“As you all know, we got massive amounts of rain this weekend,” Jackson told the commissioners. “We have bridges and tubes plugged and lots of washouts going on. You name it, we got it. All the operators are being sent to their area to work on these issues.” 

Some areas of the county received three to five inches of rain over the weekend. 

“The problem is that it comes all within 30 to 45 minutes,” Commissioner Keith Kelly said. “That’s what’s killing us.”

Commissioner Kelly said he drove around on some of the county roads after a recent rainstorm, and many areas in the roads were eroding to the point where he thought they could be dangerous for drivers.

“I think it’s good to stop what we are doing, pull everybody off and fix it. To me, it’s storm damage like a tornado or anything else,” Commissioner Kelly said. 

He said that crew members need to focus on shaping the roads so that water flows through driveway tubes instead of around them.

For more on this and other stories, please log in to your holtonrecorder.net account and select “June 19, 2024” under “E-Editions.”