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Bridge in Gravette to Prevent Flood Damage

A week after flash flood waters carried box culverts on Georgia Flat Road in Gravette, crews are still working to fix the road. However this time, the Benton Co...

A week after flash flood waters carried box culverts on Georgia Flat Road in Gravette, crews are still working to fix the road.

However this time, the Benton County Road Department is changing its strategy. They are building a concrete bridge to prevent this damage from happening again.

They expect the bridge to hold three times as much rain in short amount of time the county received last Thursday, which was four to five inches.

"It's going to be 30 foot by 60 and it will hold a lot more water and let more water go through so we won't have this again," said Scott Stober with the road department.

Crews are working overtime, seven days a week, to make sure the flood damage is fixed across the county.

"There are over 115 box culverts and bridges that got damaged to so we are working long hours," Stober said.

Sue Carnahan, who's lived on the road for 28 years, said she hopes the road department's new technique will help.

"When the creek gets up big, there's a lot of water that comes through there and it is fast so it's difficult to keep things from washing it out," Carnahan said.

Carnahan said the road is busy since it connects to Decatur and Maysville.

"I'm ready for it to be done and hopefully it will work this time because they've spent a lot of time and money out there,” she said.

The bridge is expected to be done by the weekend.

“It will probably cost us around $50,000 to finish this bridge but it will be better because we won't have to come back and fix it overtime it flash floods," Stober said.

The road department expects to work long hours for a couple more week's until all repairs are completed.

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