Weekend rainfall brings road damage

Alan Mauldin

December 01, 2008 10:17 pm

— MOULTRIE — Weekend rainfall in the county in amounts associated with tropical storms and resulting damage to dirt roads will keep workers busy repairing the damage for days.
The reports of rain, which ranged up to eight inches in parts of the county, kept emergency crews out Saturday and Sunday, said Charles Weathers, Colquitt County roads and bridges superintendent.
“We’ve got a lot of washes, washouts,” he said. “It’s just going to take time to put it together. The dirt roads are the ones where we have major problems.”
Most of the damage was concentrated from the Autreyville area east to the Tift County line, Weathers said. Reports of rainfall ran from four to eight inches over three days, with most of the precipitation coming on Saturday.
On Ellis May Road off Ga. Hwy. 37, one that Weathers mentioned when discussing the damage, there were several deep ruts cut across the roadway. At another spot water had washed away a significant amount of the roadway along the ditch, which was marked with orange cones and tape.
Workers at the second site said they were marking the areas that could pose a risk to drivers.
“We’ve still got some water across some roads, others where there are deep washes across some,” Weathers said. “Tomorrow (Tuesday) hopefully we’ll be able to start making repairs.
Weathers said he did not know how much repairing the roads would cost, but said that most of the cost will be a wash as workers who would be doing routine maintenance in other parts of the county will instead be brought in to make repairs on the damaged roads.
Winds on Monday brought reports of downed trees as well, Weathers said.
Employees who were brought in for emergency work over the weekend were paid regular pay plus holiday pay for their time, he said.
In Moultrie, there was no road damage associated with the rains, said Danny Ward, public works director.
“Luckily for us we didn’t get any flash floods,” he said. “If we had flash flooding, we would have had some damage.”
Moultrie Utilities Director Roger King also said there was no damage to facilities due to the rainfall and that the waste water system handled the surge of storm water without difficulty.