NEW ALBANY, Miss. (WTVA) — The Mississippi Department of Transportation asked the public Wednesday to be patient as it makes repairs to potholes across the area that have been forming because of the weather.
One trouble spot has been on Highway 78 between Highway 30 and Highway 15 in New Albany.
"There on 78 in Union County where the Hill Brothers have a construction project going, we had to have the traffic on one lane eastbound and one lane westbound," said MDOT District Engineer Bill Jamieson. "And with that starting about New Year's with the rain and all that came in on New Year's, the pavement is just deterioted."
Jamieson said that construction crews have been doing all they can under traffic to get rid of the potholes.
He said the pothole repairs caused traffic to slow to a crawl at times.
"There's no way to work in them without stopping them some. We have talked with them trying to as quick as they can and not hold them over at the worst 10 or 15 minutes," Jamieson continued.
MDOT already has a lane widening project underway in Union County, and when the rains set in, that only made matters worse since there were cracks in the highway.
Once the water hit those cracks, the potholes developed.
Meanwhile, Jamieson said MDOT is working on a plan to allow cars to move into the other lane until the potholes are repaired.
Patching them in the rain is not a long-term solution, he said, and they may have to revisit some of those potholes again.
Jamieson said that it's hard to watch out for potholes, especially at night when they may be full of rain, virtually making them invisible.
Officials said water-filled or snow-filled potholes can damage the rims and tires of a car.
