Cracks all across the roads like crooked veins. Days of rain. Freezing temperatures.

Lincoln County supervisors look at this convergence of forces and know one thing: their road crews are going to be busy.

“It will give you a lot of fits and headaches,” said District One Supervisor the Rev. Jerry Wilson of recent weather, speaking Friday morning even as crews in his district were busy patching.

In District Three, Supervisor Nolan Williamson has also been keeping his crews roving the roads, trying to seize advantage of the sunshine that’s available.

“We patching like the devil,” Williamson said. “When the sun went out and the rain went away, I’m out riding every road and catching the big, big holes.”

This renewed activity follows days of rain that kept the road crews largely inactive for much of last week.

Clinton Davis explained the problem Friday afternoon as he and Bo Smith slowly made their way north up Mallalieu Lane in Williamson’s District Three.

Davis pulled his truck up to a lurching stop at each pothole they came upon. Bo Smith hopped off the back and readied a tube that dispensed a patching mixture into each hole while Davis watched and directed passing traffic.

Once applied to the pothole, Davis said the patching mixture needs about 12 to 24 hours to dry. Rain after that shouldn’t cause a problem, but rain before the patching mixture has set will wash out the mix, leaving the hole exactly as it was before.

That is exactly what happened in some places throughout the county during last week’s rains.

“We patched one day last week and it rained, and it all just came back up,” Wilson said.

The rain doesn’t just slow down patching efforts but, given recent temperatures, also makes the road problems worse.

Since water expands when it freezes, the push and pull of freezing rain is a constant stress on pavement.

“When a small crack comes in and the water goes in there and freezes and you get a road with a lot of traffic, it just eats it up,” Williamson said.

With sunshine predicted throughout the upcoming week, though, supervisors plan to be out in force.

“I’ve got all my guys out now,” Wilson said.

Williams requested patience from Lincoln County residents. He said he’s fielded a lot of phone calls reporting bad stretches of road, but his crews may not be able to catch everything as quickly as people would like.

Wilson agreed, admitting that at times it’s difficult to get ahead of the needed repairs.

“We’re trying to get stuff done,” Wilson said. “Sometimes it seems like a lost cause.”