Warmer weather leads to flooding, road issues

   CLAYTON COUNTY — The much-anticipated warm-up following a stretch of more than 20 straight days with below-average temperatures led to new problems in and around Clayton County last week.

   Temperatures that topped 50 degrees for the first time since early November led to a rapid snow and ice melt, leading to elevated levels on area rivers and soft conditions on area gravel roads. On March 12, the Clayton County Secondary Roads Department posted on Facebook that “the weather has created quite a situation where we have a lot of icy gravel roads and soft gravel roads at the same time, often on the same road.”

   The post went on to note that maintainers would be out chipping ice from the previous weekend’s storm when temperatures were cold enough to do so without damaging the roads.

   Later in the week, as temperatures warmed, issues turned from ice to mud and flooding, closing more than 17 roads. Most of the closures were in the southern half of the county, including Highway 52 between Guttenberg and Luxemborg from Thursday morning through early Friday afternoon. All low river crossings were also closed. In addition to road issues, the Canadian Pacific Railway lost its bridge on the Turkey River, severing a main railroad line that connects that Quad Cities with Minneapolis-St. Paul. No information was available regarding how long replacing the bridge could take.

The Outlook Newspaper

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