$45,360 in emergency road aid awarded to fiscal court

This photo shows recent flood damage on Rose Creek Cemetery Road.

Whitley County is getting $45,360 in county road aid emergency funds from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to repair damage to an eastern Whitley County road that was one of the hardest hit during last month’s flooding.

The funds will be used for drainage structure repairs on Rose Creek Cemetery Road in order to make it safer for cars, school buses and other vehicles that rely upon the highway. The project is located about 0.14 miles east of Gatliff Road and goes over Rose Creek.

“The Bevin administration is committed to the Cabinet’s mission of providing a safe, reliable transportation network for all Kentuckians,” said Transportation Secretary Greg Thomas.  “These emergency funds will help local governments repair and restore damaged infrastructure throughout their communities.”

Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. said that this spot on Rose Creek and a mudslide on Jellico Creek were the two worst areas for damage caused by the flooding.

White said that the damaged tiles on Rose Creek are about five-feet tall, and the hole being repaired is about 15-feet deep and about a 15-foot by 50-foot square.

“During that big flooding, the water overtook the drainage tile that were in there. There was some damage that had been done by beavers that helped contribute to it,” White said. “During that big flood, water was more than the drainage capacity and it ran across the road. Once it tops the road, it can get taken out pretty quick in some situations.”

The grant funds won’t cover amount to repair the road. The county is required to provide a 20 percent match.

“We are trying to do a lot of it with in kind work. We are using our trucks to haul some of the rocks. We are trying to use that for a lot of it,” White noted.

The county is providing all the materials, but subcontracted out the work to Keith Rowe, who is already working to repair the road and is trying to get it back open this week.

“We just subcontracted out heavy equipment work that requires equipment bigger than we keep,” White added.

White said that the Jellico Creek slide moved again requiring the county to keep people there last week and a lot of the weekend in order to keep the road open until they could get the slide to stop moving.

“I think we have pretty well recovered from the original storm, but you never know when another 4.5 – 5 inches of rain are going to hit in the spring in Kentucky,” he noted.