Crawford County Road Repairs Delayed By Rainfall

The road closure is causing headaches from some homeowners.

Workers with the Crawford County Highway Department are using an excavator to dig up the road to replace culverts that are no longer usable.

With 30 feet dugout, there are still about ten more feet to go before they can reach the old culverts.

“We’ve had to cut it way back and haul a lot of material out, and the deeper that we have gone, we have found a lot of unusable material to go back in there. We’re going to have to have to haul some new material in," Chris Keith, Crawford County Roads Superintendent, said.

The part of Highway 12 collapsed earlier this summer due to flash flooding and was impacted again by heavy rainfall in September.

More rain since then has set repairs back even longer.

“It has delayed the progress, and I know it takes people a long time to get around, and I know it’s a real inconvenience, and I apologize for that, but we’re trying to go as fast as possible," Keith said.

The road closure has forced longer commutes on homeowners like Janet Bickebill.

“Mainly, our biggest concern is if they have an emergency out here, the people that need help like my mom or my dad are older, and my dad takes chemo so, just the time it would take to get to them," Bickebill said.

The Crawford County road superintendent says emergency responders are aware of the project and have been asked to use alternative routes.

"Hopefully, the weather will hold out, and it’ll be done soon. So, we can just go to work like normal, and traffic can get through," Bickebill said.

The roads superintendent says it could take a few more weeks before the project is completed, but that all depends on the weather.