News

One year after the county flood

By Scott Wagar

07/10/2012

With the one year anniversary of the flooding from the Mouse River in Bottineau County upon us, a large number of bridges and some roads in Bottineau County are still not in service. However, by the end of summer all bridges and the remaining roads in the county should be back in working order.

“Three bridges are being fixed right now in the county,” said Rob Peck, the road supervisor of Bottineau County, who also stated that for the past year six bridges in Bottineau County have been out of service due to the flooding of last summer. “Two of these bridges are small bridges in Starbuck Township. Once these bridges are finished, they will turn to the bigger ones by the Mouse River.”

Numerous roads were also lost to flooding in the summer of 2011, but all of the roads will be repaired in the near future.

“The majority of the roads are open and running again,” Peck said. “The remaining repairs to the roads are coming along and moving forward.”

The primary reason it has taken so long to repair the bridges and roads in Bottineau County came down to waiting for FEMA money, which was delayed due to all the flooding that happened in the state last summer, inundating the FEMA organization.

FEMA assistance started coming into Bottineau County in the early part of this year. However, with winter upon us at that time, the work had to wait.
Peck is pleased to see the repairs in progress.

“It has been a long time, but it has been really nice that the public has been patient with the trouble we have seen with the bridges and roads in the county,” he said. “We are hoping to see everything completed real soon and are looking forward to moving ahead.”

PAVING

As bridge and road work is being conducted this summer, two roads in the county will also see work done on them.

“Paving will start on the Townline starting on Monday (July 9),” Peck said. “After that, they are going to start on the Westhope Project where they are going to do an overlay from Highway 14 west to Highway 83 (from the Carbury Road west to Souris and on to Westhope).”

During this time, these two roads will be open to traffic, but Peck is asking individuals to take alternative routes to their destinations.

“Drivers will have to be a little patient, but they can still get through on these roads. But, the public is going to have to be patient while on these roads,” Peck said. “We are encouraging people to use the old Lake Road as a detour route during the paving on the Townline.”