"To sum it up in one word, our roads are horrendous."

Those are the words of RM of Rockwood Reeve Jim Campbell, as they see treacherous gravel road conditions in the region. The heavy rain seen throughout the region this spring has left many municipalities in the same boat, as the gravel roads develop frost-boils, and in some cases wash out. Campbell says the roads have led to concerns over driver safety, and they've even blocked access to some of those roads.

"We won the provincial award last year for having the best maintained roads in the province, and you sure wouldn't think so this year. Even my road, it's barricaded and I have to go a mile and a half out of my way to get home. Unless you have a 4x4 truck, you wouldn't be able to travel down those roads."

Campbell says they've heard no shortage of concerns expressed by ratepayers over the issue, but explains there's not much they can do until things become a bit more dry.

"This is just something Mother Nature throws at us once in a while to let us know she's in charge. You can't beat her, you just need to wait until things dry up. We have some guys working on it now, they're making some headway, but it's going to be a long process before things are back to being good again."

He explains their staff are working to catch up on gravel work, noting council's also taking measures to help move the repairs along a bit faster.

"There isn't a lot we can do except apologize and try and catch up. Now that we can start working on it, we just authorized our guys to work overtime, work weekend, and we'd even considered hiring out an extra maintainer through a private company, but we think we can do it within."

He says they have a great, dedicated staff, and says if all goes well the gravel roads should be in much better shape in the next two weeks.