Beginning Monday, sections of Warrenton Road will be closed to through traffic for two weeks so contractors can repair sunken sections on the north and south ends of the road.

“These are areas that have been worn down by traffic,” Public Works Director Garnet Van Norman said. “We’ve got a lot of (18-wheeler) truck traffic on the road, and we need to bring it back up to standard.”

He said the Board of Mayor and Aldermen are expected to declare an emergency to expedite repairs. Declaring an emergency allows city officials to get quotes for the repairs instead of having to go through the bid process, which would delay work for at least 30 days.

Van Norman said one of the sunken areas on Warrenton Road is north of Riverwalk Casino. The other is at the approach to a bridge on the road’s southern end near Kemp Bottom Road.

Warrenton Road will be closed Monday to traffic north of Riverwalk Casino, although traffic will able to get on the road from U.S. 61 South.

Starting April 13, Warrenton Road will be closed south of Kemp Bottom Road, but traffic will be able to get to the casinos and Baxter Wilson Road from the Interstate 20 side.

The board’s emergency declaration will mark the mergency to repair a problem in the city.third time in two months it has declared an e

The board in late February declared an emergency to repair a broken 100-year-old waterline at Bowmar Avenue and Letitia Street, and in March declared an emergency to repair a broken 100-year-old storm drain pipe on National Street. In both cases, the city had to hire contractors to make the repairs because both lines were deeper then 10 feet. The city does not have the equipment to work on lines deeper than nine feet.

The board on March 25 extended the emergency declaration for the Bowmar waterline to replace broken valves at the intersection of Bowmar and Drummond Street and Bowmar and Washington Street.

Van Norman said the 100-year-old valves were damaged when city workers attempted to turn the water back on after the waterline was repaired.