The summer weather has been both a help and a hindrance to the Guthrie County Secondary Roads Department.

County Engineer Josh Sebern says that with only the sporadic rains, maintaining the gravel roads has been interesting, as they begin to develop washboards. He adds that outside of maintenance, some of the construction projects that the department has been working on are coming together nicely. Sebern tells Raccoon Valley Radio about a project in a rural area of the county that is underway.

“We have a bridge project that we’re working on, a repair (really). We had to close the bridge, there was a hole (that) developed, but we’re going to get a steel plate and that bridge is going to be opened up. That’s down by Dale City.”

Sebern mentions that work will be beginning on the two bridges set to be replaced by aluminum box culverts, with hopes that if the work isn’t done by harvest, it won’t take much longer to get everything finished. He adds that one reason these culverts might take a little longer is that they’re larger than the last aluminum box culvert they had installed.