Late snow storms in April and May can happen in Iowa, which can lead to issues with road maintenance projects. Washington County Engineer Jacob Thorius says he has come across issues with road projects when rapidly changing weather occurs. Thorius tells KCII News about an issue called frost boils and how they’re not an easy fix, “Easiest way we describe them is it’s a soft spot in the road. It feels like there’s no base at times when you’re driving in muddy conditions. They can be dry and you feel like you’re driving in sand. The soil particles are no longer sticking together. They’ve liquified which usually happens because the ground’s frozen pretty thick and the top falls off before the bottom falls out. Then there’s moisture there that’s trapped and so it can’t get soaked up into the ground, it can’t drain away, then it’s trapped on that hard frozen layer. More traffic drives on it and it just breaks the bonds of the soil particles. To fix them, there is no good answer. We’ve tried a variety of stuff across the state. The best answer, unfortunately, is time. They just need to dry out and heal on their own.” 

Thorius says one frost boil incident led to over 70 tons of rock being dumped into a pickup truck-sized hole, which still did not fix the issue. He reminds Washington County residents that road projects are underway and it will take time to address all the road issues in Washington County.