Some of the county's roads are in bad shape after being inundated by ice and flood waters in recent months.
Kosciusko County Highway Superintendent Dennis Pletcher told the county commissioners Tuesday that some of the roads are in such bad shape that motorists may not see them get much better until spring. Pletcher said the problem is not that his department isn't patching the roads, it's that the patches are breaking down faster than they can be replaced."This is not weather that's conducive to road repairs," Pletcher said. "We have to go out and patch potholes, but there's no material that is going to stay in those things."
Pletcher said rain and snow, which cause ice on the roads, break up road and patching materials, and the cold temperatures do not allow patches to bond properly with the roads. He said when the weather warms up, the patches will be more effective, and this summer road crews will scrape badly damaged sections of road and repair their surfaces.
In the mean time, Pletcher requested the commissioners' permission to post signs to warn motorists of especially bad portions of road.
"We're putting the sings up to warn people, 'Hey, there's a problem here, you need to drive accordingly,'" he said.
At 8 a.m. this morning, 18 county roads were listed as closed and 24 roads were listed as marked for hazardous conditions, including high water and thick ice. County road crews were working with loaders and graders to remove ice from some of the closed roads.
