Work to repair roads within Pearl River County is underway.

Pearl River County Road Manager Charlie Schielder said crews have completed a substantial amount of road repairs this year.

Schielder said the county’s road department is planning to pave more then 30 miles of county roads this year. So far work on 21 miles has been completed.

Currently, there are more than 800 miles of county roads that need some sort of repair.  In response, the road department and the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors are forming a plan of action to repair roads on a rotation basis. The plan will allow crews to fix areas that require immediate attention first.

Schielder said the decision to pave any road is made only after analyzing its traffic flow and the overall condition.

He said the department is also working to increase the durability of roads traversed by heavy vehicles. The process involves strengthening the base by adding a cement mixture to harden it.

“Each year we are trying to increase the quality of the work and also increase the amount of roads we do,” Schielder said.

The road department is doing this work with a budget of $1.2 million.

Longer roads with less traffic are repaired using a double bituminous surface treatment, a cheaper yet effective alternative, Schielder said.

He said that during the past two years the road department tried to divide the budget and conduct repairs to more deteriorated roads across the county, instead of focusing on one particular area.

This year repairs have been completed on Bouie Road, Smith Road, Henry Smith Road, Huntington Drive, Antoinette Drive, Entrekin Road, George Mitchell Road, Ceaser Road, Charlie Daughdrill Drive, Lee Town Road, Crab Apple Road, Joe Reyer Road, Rayburn Road, Hawthorne Road, Cambridge Road, Beaverwood Road, Walkiah Bluff Road, Balmoral Road, Old Camp Road and Harry Sones Road.