Citizens voice concern over road conditions
Published 8:42 pm Thursday, January 28, 2010
The Crenshaw County Commission heard from several members of the public during their meeting Monday night due to the condition of dirt roads around the county.
The citizens voiced their concerns during the work session.
“We’re working on a long-term plan for our dirt roads,” said commissioner Charlie Sankey. “The whole county is hurting, and we promise you we will implement a plan.”
At the regular meeting, Benji Sanders, head of the road department, went in depth about the problems facing the county and the progress toward a solution.
“FEMA has come in and officially started the project worksheet process, which used to be called damage reports,” Sanders said. “That will take a lot of time. Our initial map has 80-something roads we’re taking them to, and most of those are dirt roads that make up two-thirds of our dirt road mileage.”
The heavy rains of the last several months have caused several problems with roads washing out and ditches filling up in Crenshaw County, which has around 430 miles of dirt roads.
“I anticipate it’ll take us several weeks to get around,” Sanders said. “We’ve just not gotten started good and gotten a routine going in how we’re writing them up.”
Sanders also said that he expects his list to get longer before it gets shorter due to the road crews still finding places aggravated by last weekend’s heavy rain.
“The FEMA part of the process is fairly long due to the damage and the paperwork,” he said. “We do encourage the public to use extra caution on roads, whether they’re barricaded or not.”
Here is a list of roads closed as of Jan. 25:
Aiken Road — South of Spears Branch at the bridge
Best Road — US 331 to Adams Lane
Black Rock Road — County Road 40 end
Bolling Road — From Janice Hall’s to Horse Creek Road
Byrd Road — At the Williams Loop intersection
Davis Pond Road — Quail Tower end
Golden Road — North of Hughes Road
Jordan Junction — entire road
Little Horse Creek Road — At South Moody’s Crossroad intersection
Magnolia Shores Road — From first residence off CR 66 to CR 55.
Mulberry Road — Between Ridge Way and Union Camp
North Moody’s Crossroads — CR 40 end.
Odom Loop Road — Covington County end
Powell Road — From AL 189 to Bailey Lake
Rockhill Church Road — CR 7 end.
Rocky Mount Road — Jeter Road end
South Brunson Chapel Road — CR 57 end
Settlement Road — From bridge to Parker Creek Road.
Sims Road — Pond Creek end.
West Robinson Road — at bridge.