Many sections of gravel roads including 220th Street just west of West Union City Hall have been closed due to poor gravel road conditions until the roads can be repaired by the Fayette County Secondary Roads Department once conditions improve.  Chris DeBack photos

Soggy roads

By Chris Deback
cdeback@thefayettecountyunion.com

Last week, Mother Nature threw one last curveball at the residents of Fayette County with warm temperatures leading to snow melting quickly causing muddy conditions on the counties gravel roads.

This quick thaw, combined with a thaw cycle in January, left gravel roads across northeast Iowa saturated with water. With the ground still frozen underneath the initial layer of dirt, water from the melting snow wasn’t able to infiltrate the ground to runoff. Instead, it stayed near the surface causing soggy conditions on the gravel roads. 

“Last fall, the area had all that rain, and it saturated our gravel roads and then they froze,” said Joel Fantz, Fayette County Engineer. “Then we had another rain and thaw in January, which saturated the roads even more. There was a tremendous amount of water trapped within the first four inches of the gravel roads. With the frost below none of the water was able to away so the only way it can get away is through the surface. We knew last fall that this would be a challenging spring. We aren’t the only county around dealing with some difficult conditions. That is really the big issue, now that these roads are thawing out.”