WAPELLO COUNTY, IOWA -- As the river recedes, the amount of foad work increases.
Our Fact Finder Team wanted to know how the road conditions were after all the flooding we have had this year.
Wapello County Secondary Roads Superintendent Dan Terrell told Fact Finder the river washed away the gravel on many low lying roads. He said no area of the county went unscathed.
He said the road damage covers the same area as 2008 did, but in many cases it is not as severe.
Flash flooding poses another issue for the roads.
“The Flash Flooding from the storms and heavy rains, the river comes up real quick, takes the rock off the road; it will take culverts out and bridges. We've lost a lot of bridges and major culverts.”
Fact Finder learned crews have redone many roads three times already this summer due to rains.
Terrell said it takes 300-500 tons of gravel per mile on the large gravel roads in Wapello County.
“There’s 1000’s of tons of gravel that we’re constantly going back over and over again, pulling it out and trying to salvage it. But there is only so much that can be salvaged. It’s a big loss to the county.”
He said right now they should be doing ditch work and not having to fight these issues.
Terrell said they have been doing their best to keep costs down for the county.
“A lot of places we will lose ¾ of the amount of rock, the base that’s on the road we will lose all of that. We will go back and try to salvage the rock out of the ditch, but we will only gain a certain percentage of it back and a lot of it is a loss. It just gets too much dirt and you can’t reach it.”
Terrell fears another heavy ran Friday and said it could cause some more flash flooding and make them redo some roads one more time.
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