Rain slows road improvements

Constant storms in eastern New Mexico since August have destroyed property and county roads, and Clovis and Portales officials report they are also making city road improvements difficult.

Repairs to Kilgore Avenue from U.S. 70 to Third Street in Portales were expected to last until Aug. 31, but according to Public Works Director John DeSha, rains have pushed the $30,000 project's completion to the end of September.

"We had to virtually shut down the project for several days in a row because of (rain)," he said, adding that any problems that may arise on a rainy day take priority over a project.

"We have to go and close down roads whenever they flood out, of course. And then, some places, extremely large potholes will open up, and they have to go take care of them. There's times that we'll have to go work on an alley if it becomes impassable because of the rain, or if we have a tree that comes down, we'll take care of those."

While the delays are an inconvenience for the city, DeSha said his department monitors the weather closely to ensure the situation doesn't worsen.

Clovis Public Works Director Clint Bunch said the rain will delay a $150,000 concrete project on Sugarbeet Road from U.S. 60/84 to the backside of the Cooks Restaurant property by "a day or two until it dries out a little bit and we get back in there."

The asphalt and surface was removed to prevent any significant damage to the project, according to Bunch.

Rainy days also cause problems for the rest of the city's infrastructure, he said.

"On our existing infrastructure — our streets and parking lots and everything in the city — the rain causes stress to the paving. It gets under the paving, wherever there's cracks, causes a lot of potholes to pop out. We have to do a lot of patching and maintenance on the streets also."

New Mexico Department of Transportation Public Information Officer Manon Arnett said a $10 million repair project on Prince Street from Llano Estacado Boulevard to Curry Road 17 will be delayed, but should still be completed ahead of schedule by the winter of 2019.