Flooding Causes Road Closures in Beaver County
Michelle Pinon
News Advertiser
Bob Beck, Chief Administrative Officer of Beaver County, reported they had many road closures in the county this past week.
Beck said he was unaware of any residents that were completely cut off and had no other route of access. As to just how many residents have been directly affected by flooding? He said it is hard to estimate because it depends on what is meant by directly affected.
“Everyone who takes access from a gravel road is affected because it has affected the condition of every road. The poor condition of the roads not only affected residents, but ag. producers, some of whom are still harvesting last year’s crop before considering planting this year’s crop.
We are applying additional gravel and course rock materials in many locations across the county. A good number of culverts have been heavily impacted and may need to be replaced. We have made temporary repairs to reopen roads, but we will need to return to make permanent repairs in those areas.
A small, (less than 10), road locations will require much more significant road repairs, (repairing paved surface, extensive road rebuilt, etc.) Most of the road repairs are minor in nature and can be repaired by our grader operators with additional gravel or other aggregate.
Beck said at this point they do not know how flooding will affect the county’s overall budget as they are currently reviewing the numbers currently. He did say they are using gravel materials faster than anticipated. “This is likely to require a budget adjustment, but there is no choice.”
These roads are currently closed: Twp Rd 512 from RR 170 to 171, RR 153 between Twp Rd 480 – 482, RR 110 between Twp Rd 473 – 480, Twp Rd 492 between RR 154 – 151, Rge Rd 175 between 480 – 482, and RR 192 between Hwy 14 north to Twp Rd 512