Some West Tennessee roads collapse after heavy rain

CHESTER COUNTY, Tenn. — In the last few weeks, West Tennessee has had its fair share of collapsed roads and sinkholes, mainly due to heavy rains.

The latest damage has closed off areas in Henderson and Chester counties.

In Chester County, both Jones Road and Smith Road have been closed since Sunday.

“We did the Jones Road first because more traffic on the Jones Road, so we like to go that route first,” Chester County Highway Department Supervisor Jerry King said.

King said he got a call around 9 a.m. Sunday about the roads being washed out, even damaging the piping underneath.

“It just had so much rain coming to it, it just couldn’t take it,” King said. “So it went over and took the pipe down stream about 20 feet.”

Although heavy rain can play a big role in damage, sometimes the infrastructure could have already been compromised, like the old pipes.

“I think that’s what contributed to a lot of the problems is to replace the pipes so we wouldn’t have the problems,” King said. “When you get that kind of rainfall, something’s going to move.”

Crews have already been working on the Jones Road damage, and King says he hopes to have the Smith Road damage repaired as early as Tuesday evening, weather permitting.

“Smith Road should be opened up by 5 o’clock tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday,” King said. “And we were blessed we didn’t have anymore damage than what we had.”

As for any other damage across the county, King says nothing major has occurred and that the focus is just on continuing to scope out any problem areas for the future.

“You’ve got to change them out and keep going,” King said.

Waller Road in Henderson County was also temporarily closed due to a washout near the edge of the road. Those repairs were completed Monday afternoon.