So far, county roads holding up

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct an inaccurate quote.

▶️ Listen to this article now.

SANDPOINT — So far, so good.

While a few roads have suffered some damage, it's much less than what the county has suffered in some years, county officials told the Daily Bee.

But that could quickly change if the rain predicted for next week — and the potential for warmer temperatures — pull a lot of the remaining snow off the mountains in a short amount of time.

"We actually didn't take a hit as bad as I thought we would get hit," Jason Topp, Bonner County Road & Bridge director, said. "But I think it may get worse here with the rains coming in next week.

Washouts and mudslides have been minimal, with a little bit of scouring on East Spring Creek Road and the mudslide that washed out Lightning Creek Road. That mudslide temporarily trapped some campers behind the slide, but a crew from Woods Construction was in the area and was able to extricate them, Topp said.

A washout on Blacktail Road in southern Bonner County was quickly repaired, as was some sloughing on the sides of the road in the Fish Creek area.

With a lot of snow remaining in the higher elevations in both the Clark Fork and Priest River areas, things could quickly change. A lot of rain and warmer temperatures could pack the county's streams and rivers, which could impact local roadways due to flooding and mudslides, the pair said.

Some small stream flooding has softened the shoulders of some nearby roads, Bob Howard, director of Bonner County Emergency Services, said. Both Howard and Topp cautioned residents to take it easy in those areas and to avoid the shoulders as much as possible.

The roads' shoulders could be softened by the rains or undercut by a nearby creek, the pair said.

"People need to stay away from the creeks," Topp said. "Everybody thinks they're really cool when they're up like this, and they all want to go there and take a look at it. But they're extremely dangerous right now, and they're moving so fast. I mean, we don't need people to get pinned under log jams or anything like that. It's just best to stay clear."

He also asked residents that, when they see road crews out working to fix roadways, to give them some space. That way, they can get the work done quickly — and keep everyone safe.

"Just stay back," Topp added. "We don't want people getting hurt. Sometimes, especially if you have rock slides or landslides coming down, people want to come in or see that and that's pretty dangerous. We're trying to keep people back away from those until they stabilize out enough that we can clean them."

The roads hardest hit are the non-maintained county roads, many of which have undersized culverts that are not able to handle bigger storm events, Topp said.

Among them is Lower Mosquito Creek Road, which washed out in part due to only having a four-foot culvert. Because they are non-maintained roads, county crews can't work on them. Instead, residents have to get a contractor to come out to do the work.

In those instances, Topp refers the residents to Emergency Management since that department has more suitable resources and contacts to help them fix the roads and potentially find funding.

Howard said it's best to be cautious if water is on the roadway, because of what you don't see.

"They just need to be cautious," he said. "Don't drive through really deep water because you don't know what's under the water — they could be washed out."

The high waters at Priest Lake have Road & Bridge crews keeping an eye on things in a few spots, Topp said.

"The lake is just so high that the road's flooded out there at Warren Beach," he said. "We're keeping an eye on that — there's really nothing we can do about it with the lake level being as high as it is. So we're just kind of keeping an eye on that."