PENDLETON — The heavy hauling that has torn up County Road 1100 South is almost complete.
This means county officials soon can start repairing the road instead of filling in potholes with gravel as a temporary fix, county commissioner Paul Wilson said.
Work is nearing completion on a hog farm that required semi trucks to transport 150 tons of concrete across County Road 1100 South and over the county line to the farm of Josh and Shannon Lawyer.
Commissioners initially imposed a weight limit on the road to keep the trucks with heavy cargo away. But the Lawyers were quick to speak out against the weight restriction. They said the weight limit would ban typical farm equipment, such as tractors, from the road.
The Lawyer family and county reached a compromise: The county would lift the weight limit, and the Lawyer family would pay $10,000 to help repair the county road.
The Lawyers also agreed to transport their concrete along a different path than County Road 1100 South. But not all transport vehicles got that message in time, Wilson said.
County street workers have had to fill in potholes with gravel four times, because the road keeps getting torn up, Wilson said.
Commissioners plan to start repairing the road within the next few weeks.
“We’ll get to it fairly quickly,” Wilson said. “We want that road fixed.”
But residents who live along the road fear it is doomed to crumble again without a weight limit. The road was not made for the kinds of traffic a hog feeding facility will generate, Markleville resident Kaye Wolverton said.
The county has done a good job of filling in potholes as they appear, she said, but the road just keeps crumbling. She often has to swerve around gaping holes in the road on her way to and from home.
“The foundation of the road has been completely pulverized,” she said. “The damage is horrendous. The roads are just crushing underneath these semis.”
Rural roads were made for light trucks and traffic, not heavy trucks better suited for highways, which are made to support heavier loads, she said. She worries that transport trucks going to and from the hog farm will beat the road down again after it is repaired.
The Lawyer family opposed weight limits to the road, because weight restrictions would ban common equipment that farmers need. Farmers have so many things that weigh more than 150 tons that are necessities, Lynne Lawyer said.
Pot holes are bound to happen on rural roads, and not just because of heavy traffic, she said.
Drivers concerned about potholes should drive slowly and use caution, she said.
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