The Chambers County Highway Department has officially closed down several roads for repairs due to heavy rainfall over the past few weeks.

The county roads, which span throughout the area, are being closed only to larger and commercial vehicles so that the department can make appropriate repairs. Residents living on and near these roads can still use them when needed.

County Engineer Josh Harvill explained that the closures will allow repairs to set over the weekend. The roads are expected to be open to all traffic again on Monday.

“We went out Wednesday and Thursday and patched up the areas that we judged to be impassable,” Harvill said. “We are going to close those roads until Monday so hopefully the only traffic using the roads until then will be the cars of people who live out there.”

The damage comes from a combination of the heavy rainfall and large commercial vehicles that use these roads frequently. Because of the gravel constantly being washed away, any vehicle heavier than a passenger car drastically exacerbates the ruts and rough spots that form.

“The roads are closed because it has been so wet out there,” Harvill said. “When the road gets like it is, every piece of gravel you put down, it’s like dumping it into a black hole. It goes away as soon as you put it out. If heavy vehicles keep using those roads and we have to keep patching them, we just can’t keep up. The primary cause of this damage is not anyone’s fault, mother nature has just been rough on us.”

The county urges those who live on and around the roads to use extreme caution while traveling on them. The new variables in road surfaces caused by the weather change up familiar roads, Harvill said, so accidents are made easier by ruts people don’t anticipate.

“We are trying to take as much caution as possible,” he said.

The closed roads include the following:

• CR 66 closed from CR 28 (2.6 MI) northeast to the intersection of CR 65
• CR 51 closed from Sardis Church (2.8 MI) east to CR 28
• CR 101 closed from CR 98 (2.1 MI) east to end of road
• CR 90 closed from CR 267 (1.8 MI) southwest to HWY 50
• CR 92 closed from CR 87 (4.9 MI) northeast to CR 179
• CR 267 closed from the end of the easterly paved section near CR 91, (3.6 MI) east to CR 216
• CR 216 closed from CR 267 (1.5 MI) to bridge over Works Creek