By Jonathan Zweygardt
Hays Post
Ellis County Public Works officials are advising motorists to use extra caution when travelling on unpaved roads and to limit unnecessary travel on unpaved roads because of the deteriorating road conditions.
Public Works Director Brendan Mackay said the dry conditions break the road down. With the lack of rain and the department’s lack of available water trucks, it makes the roads difficult to maintain.
“When we enter these drought conditions like we are, especially with the high heat that we have had this summer with the drought, it causes the rock to break down into a powder,” he said.
It can be like driving on sand.
Mackay said when the rock on the chalk roads breaks down into that powder, it takes on a very fluffy consistency that drivers are not used to.
“The traveling public, they’re used to it being a solid consistent base that is underneath, but now there is a couple inches of powder above the road that they’d normally be used to driving on,” Mackay said.
Mackay said they fix the issue is by adding water.
“But with the 1,375ish miles of road that we have and three water trucks for the county, we try to as much as we can with what we’re given,” Mackay said.
He said they are hoping with rain in the forecast this week and the county's plans to address the issue, the conditions will improve.
In the meantime, motorists should slow down, use caution and be aware of the road conditions.
Cover photo courtesy of Pixabay.