April showers are supposed to bring May flowers, not floods. But flooding is what we have been experiencing all over our County, and yes we lost more bridges. It looks like we may get a break in the weather this next week and so our road crews will be our cleaning up the mess left by our record rainfall.
To provide some perspective; in our County we have approximately 216 bridges and only around 105 are now considered adequate and safe, leaving us with the greatest number of deficient & obsolete bridges compared to all other counties in our region. Logan County also maintains approximately 1200 road miles which is the highest of any other county in our region.
With the not so good news that the Oklahoma State Legislature passed House Bill 2244 which again robbed transportation funding to balance the bloated state budget with falling revenue. So I guess while there never is a good time for a natural disaster, this certainly qualifies as really bad timing for our county transportation infrastructure maintenance efforts. While I am pretty sure that Mother Nature has not turned against us I am not so sure about our state elected officials that voted to take money from our county transportation fund.
In our road district we lost the bridge over the Cottonwood Creek—just over the rail road tracks—at Seward Road approximately 3/4 mile west of intersection of Seward Road and Broadway. The west end of the approach ramp and adjoining abutment were washed out which cause the road to collapse. Unfortunately, Seward Road from Broadway to Santa Fe is now closed to through traffic. We also have a serious issue on Waterloo Road on the north side, between Western and Santa Fe where the road has been undercut by high water.
That’s it for now, thanks to all for the feedback and stays safe out there on our roads and bridges.
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