OTTUMWA —
Southeast Iowa received a little rain over the weekend, but much more is needed.
Keokuk County Engineer Andrew McGuire is pleased his area got a little bit of rain over the weekend.
“That helped us control the dust somewhat,” he said Monday. “We’re in the same spot as the farmers and could use more moisture.”
McGuire noted the damage had been done but a bit of moisture would help the roads. As it is, the crews are working the roads with the maintainers.
Jefferson County Engineer Scott Cline said there’s still a lot of dust, and some county residents are implementing dust control measures on rural roads.
“And it’s a few more people than we’ve had in the past,” Cline said.
Grading his county’s roads is sometimes more difficult because they don’t have the moisture to pack material in place. Goode said the roads had pavement blowups due to heat, but that eased up around July 4 and for the next month or so.
“We haven’t heard of any recent blowups due to the cooler weather,” Cline said.
Rain hasn’t interfered with the county’s work, and Cline kind of wishes it would rain because dryness makes it hard to repair the roads.
“I think I would like to see more rain,” he added.
Monroe County Engineer John Goode said his area had seven pavement blowups during a recent weekend.
“That has slowed down, so maybe it took off the pressure,” he said. “Now we have an opportunity to catch up on some other work, such as patching and culverts. And, we’d like to have some moderate rain because the farmers need a break.”
Goode considered the situation “pretty serious.”
“There are issues with the corn and pastures and that will soon create some issues on the roads as farmers move the feed around,” he said. “I hope the traveling public will watch for those vehicles, because there could be a lot of them on the road.”
Some farmers are turning their crops into silage to get some value out of their fields. Those with livestock will want to use the silage because there won’t be as much hay, Goode added.
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