Work to repair a collapsing road will result in part of County Road 53 being closed on Thursday and Friday.

Chilton County engineer Tony Wearren said one of the reasons the road started to collapse was largely due to a pipe underneath the road eroding.

The road, near the intersection of County Road 9, started to develop cracks in the pavement with parts of the road collapsing.

“Due to an old road system and a pipe that is more than 40 years old, the road is just giving way,” Wearren said. “We are going to have to replace the pipe to fix the road.”

Another issue with the road damage is a culvert near the collapsing portion is currently filled with garbage from passing motorists dumping trash on the side of the road.

Wearren said the litter poses a problem for the road department due to crew members having to spend an extra day of labor removing the garbage from the dirt in the culvert.

Replacing the pipe will cost $7,000 with an additional $2,000 being spent to cover the cost of labor to remove the trash and $2,000 for equipment usage.

Although it is unknown who is throwing trash into the culvert, several opened garbage bags spread across the culvert forcing a crew of six to sort the trash on Wednesday to prepare for the road repair.

“It is just a big hassle to sort all of the trash from the dirt to take to the dump,” Wearren said. “It takes an extra day of labor to clean up the mess and make sure the dirt is ready to fix the road. We have about 20 or 30 roads in the county that are like this which is becoming a problem.”

Wearren said recent rainfall also contributed to the road collapsing but hopes to have the road fixed and open by the weekend.