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Troy University students returned to campus last Wednesday surprised to find the main university roads stripped to the road base.

Students have criticized the road conditions on social media, citing concerns that they are risking damage to tires and vehicles to come to classes.

“I get that the roads needed serious redoing; what I don’t understand is the execution,” said Virginia Tilley, a sophomore social work major. “Instead of doing one road at a time and already having one done before school started back, all the roads except Long (Avenue) are wonky.”

Herbert Reeves, dean of student services, said the plan was to begin paving while students were away at Christmas break, but weather delayed the start of the process.

“All along the weather has been a factor in keeping us from doing it,” Reeves said. “The weather deteriorated and the base of those roads created a lot of potholes.”

Austin Shufflebarger, a junior economics major, said his understanding is that students didn’t believe the roads to be in bad enough conditions that they had to be repaved immediately.

“There just doesn’t seem to be any semblance to priorities, especially when the roads would’ve lasted until the summertime when less people were here,” Shufflebarger said.

Reeves said the roads are being repaved now because the deterioration was already becoming a problem before the asphalt was stripped.

“We’re repaving them out of need,” Reeves said. “They were beginning to wear significantly. We had to strip the asphalt because you can only add so many layers before it is over your curbs. But fixing the roads was a priority.”

Cones were placed in many of the worst potholes on Monday to keep drivers from unexpectedly hitting the rough areas. Reeves said most of the potholes have now been patched to alleviate the issues as the roads begin begin paved today.

“It should last until the end of next week,” Reeves said. “There will be some temporary road closures during that time as they move down the road and we will detour as needed. But we’re going to do it in small areas at a time instead of closing down the whole road.”

Reeves said he does not have any recent traffic counts on the road, but said there is heavy traffic on the roads both by students and other Troy residents cutting through the area.

All three major campus roads – University Avenue, International Drive and Veterans Drive – were stripped of asphalt and will being being repaved today. Reeves said he expects the roads to be completed or mostly finished by the end of next week.