Another Sunflower County resident is speaking out and wants something done about what she sees as an unsafe condition on a county road that she has to travel.
Like some other byways in the county, Hughes Braswell Road is a rough-riding, narrow stretch of gravel with a rubboard like quality that requires careful negotiation whenever two vehicles meet.
But, what makes this restricted roadway even worse is that about a mile and a half in, the part of the road that runs over a large culvert keeps washing away and leaving the metal pipe exposed on both sides of the road. Patsy Jackson who lives just past that culvert said, “Someone is going to get hurt at this ditch. It is getting more and more narrow.”
Hughes Braswell Road proceeds in a northwesterly meander from MS 442 in the Steiner-Roundaway Community toward Charlie Ellis Road where the name changes to Sawmill Road.
Sunflower County Road Manager T.J. Fairley said the erosion problem is due to water that backs up and accumulates at that spot because of a dam that beavers continually construct in the large pipe.
He said his crews have repeatedly broken up the blockage and taken steps to deter the animals, but the erecting rodents persistently rebuild.
When heavy rains fall like the ones experienced recently, the obstruction prevents the waters from flowing west through the conduit and the water floods Jackson’s property.
The culvert is at the intersection of Hughes Braswell and an unnamed road that leads to her relative’s home and she likened the area at that intersection to a swamp. “If someone came through here and didn’t know about the road and tried to pass someone they would be in this deep ditch,” she said.
Jackson acknowledged that the county has worked on the problem on several occasions, but have not successfully fixed it. “I just don’t want anybody to get hurt,” she said.
Fairley said he plans to try something different this time by bringing in some chunks of concrete to add to the gravel he uses in the hope that it will keep the road from getting washed away. “We’ll get it taken care of,” he said.
