A car hits a pothole on the Coos Wagon Road Tuesday evening near Dora. Residents say the road is dangerous where pipeline construction has taken place: Temporary patches on replaced culverts and the pipeline trench have turned into long stretches of large potholes. Additionally, slides - which often occur naturally in the hills and the Coast Range - multiply traffic hazards, as is evident by the "Danger" sign posted in the background. A hubcap, lost by another car at some earlier time, hangs on a tree in the background near the utility pole. World Photo by Susan Chambers

"Small cars - you can see them bouncing," Four Corners Store clerk Kathy Handcock said of the potholes on the Coquille Fairview Road between the two communities.

But it won't be that way for long.

For a few miles, where the pipeline zig-zags under the roadbed, the trench is riddled with potholes and no lines marking the lanes. The road is so bad that most drivers ignore their own lane and take their chances against oncoming traffic. Coos County road department trucks often don't drive in the rutted lanes that connect the Sitkum and Dora region to bigger towns.

"During the night, when it's foggy, I drive slow going home, about 20 mph, until I get to the top of Hungry Mountain," said Handcock, who lives in Coquille.

She's only one of several valley residents upset at the condition of roads near Fairview, Sumner, McKinley, Dora and Sitkum. Coos County officials are aware of the problem and have gotten several calls about the situation.

Since work began in July, McKinley residents and others were detoured to Myrtle Point or Coquille, depending on construction, sometimes with little notice. Once the pipeline was in place and temporary patches made, the rains came. With rains and bad weather, the trench turned into a dotted line of potholes.

"More like sinkholes," Handcock said.

"We've had a lot of complaints about the trench being rough," Coos County Roadmaster Larry Van Elsberg said. "We've tried to stay on top of it, but with the bad weather, it's been tough."

Van Elsberg said that, according to the pipeline bid contract, the county is responsible for temporary fixes to the pipeline trench in county roads.

A sub-contractor will fix the road permanently.

John Rowe, asphalt manager for LTM Inc., dba Bracelin & Yeager, confirmed that he's already made plans to finish the work.

The problem is the weather won't cooperate.

One of the wettest winters in the past few years has prevented road crews from completing any work. Temporary fixes erode quickly and just when things start to dry out a bit, more rains come.

"We tried to go up and patch one piece but got rained out," Rowe said.

But there is good news for those folks who have had to put up with axle-busting roads.

Instead of just a filled trench, the entire roadway in some areas will be paved with a 3-inch overlay.

Yes, both lanes.

Brand-new.

"We need a four- to five-day dry spell," Rowe said. "We hope to be there sometime in February. The first chance we get, we're going to be in there."

Already, Rowe said, some county roads have been fixed, such as those in the McKinley area and on Libby Lane, even though the small Libby section wasn't scheduled for a complete overlay. The McKinley area was fixed in November, before the rains, and Libby was finished earlier this month.

Still, that's little consolation for the everyday drivers in the Fairview-Dora-Sitkum area.

"It's a pain for us, too," Van Elsberg said. "It bothers me that our customers have to drive that road and we can't get up there to fix it.

"I don't think anybody originally expected it to go this late in the season."