Adams, Arapahoe County work crews prepare for more flooding, damage
Due to months of severe weather and heavy rain, roadways in Adams and Arapahoe counties experienced closures due to flooding and road damage. With more rain expected this week, public works crews are preparing.
The Adams County Public Works team is monitoring road closure locations and signage daily while recovery work is ongoing. Road crews are working to ensure that roads are graded and crowned to stand up to precipitation.
"This is definitely one for the history books. We've never had water like this before. The road just couldn't take it," said Dylan Engelsman, an Adams County Public Works Highway foreman.
Engelsman says gravel roads are their main concern.
Multiple locations that were once closed have since reopened in Adams County, but days of poor weather make repairs a challenge.
After a weather event, crews need the road to dry out and the water to stop running before they can even assess and evaluate what the damage is.
"Our crews have been working overtime pretty much since May 12. We've been assessing our current closures and repairing them as we can go. When we started back in May, we had 28 closures and that list has severely decreased," Engelsman said. "We do ask for a little patience from the citizens. We understand it's an inconvenience, but we're working diligently to make sure that we get these roads back online in our network."
Given the way this season has gone, Arapahoe County Emergency Management says flash flooding can happen anywhere. It's asking everyone to stay vigilant.
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"We're recognizing that mother nature can throw us curveballs, and we're sitting back ready to hit them," said Bryan Weimer, the Director of Public Works for Arapahoe County.
Arapahoe County had a total of 12 roadway closures due to weather damage over the last few months. As of Monday, crews have been able to reopen them all.
During some of those repairs, the county was able to increase the culvert sizes to pass more water underneath.
"We've started to put barriers, signage and cones on our trailers so that we can easily deploy them if we have a problem," Weiner said. "In addition to that, we've also identified major areas where we've seen significant flooding, and we're going to pre-stage some of those barriers."
Both counties have an idea of what areas are most at risk of flooding during heavy rain, but they need residents to help them by reporting damage so they can address it as soon as possible.
