(Spirit Lake)– County roads departments are out assessing damages now that the water has started to recede in some areas. Dickinson County Engineer Cole Budach says what they’re finding is astonishing…
“Right now it looks like we’re going to have somewhere north of 200 repair locations if not more. Right now we have 150 plus documented areas and we have guys out documenting more right now.”
He says there’s still water covering roads in lower lying areas and in locations along lakes and rivers…
“We still have several areas where there is currently water on the road. These are going to be next to large, poorly drained areas such as like there are some farm fields that floods out pretty severely and then adjacent to the lake we’re seeing the lakes come out of the banks and flooding out onto the road. And then adjacent to the Little Sioux River and some of it’s larger outlets like the West Fork of the Little Sioux River, there’s still water overtopping the road.”
Budach says at least two bridges in Dickinson county have sustained major damage…
“The A-43 bridge about 3/4 of a mile east of M-27 is closed down. The abutment washed out and that will likely be closed down for an extended period of time. In addition to that one we did find one other bridge where an abutment washed out and that’s in the 2500 block of 210th Avenue. That bridge is also shut down and it will be several months before that one’s repaired.”
Budach says they’re in the process of establishing priority lists for repairs…
“In terms of repairs, it could be months before we get everything addressed but we are going to try to start by repairing the smaller areas and then addressing the large areas after that so we can get, I guess the intention is to try to get as many of these gravel roads back in a normal working condition as soon as possible then go and attack some of these larger areas.“
He adds that they’ll address the bridges after that. He says private contractors will be lined up to do that work.
Budach adds the county simply doesn’t have enough barricades to block off the areas that are damaged or washed out. He says you’ll need to turn around if you come across something like that, as trying to drive through something like that can cause serious damage to vehicles.
