Enormous hole filled in Mississippi County road

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Mississippi County officials have finally found the bottom of the hole where County Road 310 used to be before being washed away during the 2011 activation of the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway.

"We are above the water line on 310," Presiding Commissioner Carlin Bennett said during a County Commission meeting Thursday.

Since the project was approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the county has been hauling and dumping fill material in a hole "as big as this courthouse," Bennett said. "It was a big hole. We never did see the bottom of it because it has always been full of water."

Material from the deconstruction of another road destroyed by floodwater and heavy equipment working to repair the levee, County Road 340, also known as "the old slab road," should provide all the remaining fill needed, Bennett said, after which several feet of dirt will be piled on top to begin establishing the base for the road.

Having held the public hearing required for the Community Development Block Grant funding for reconstruction of County Road 340 with no comments received, the county is now notifying almost a dozen agencies of the comment period's results.

"Just another step in the process of getting County Road 340 paved," Bennett said.