A portion of Old River Road between the Villages of Philo and Gaysport has been closed to through traffic as the Muskingum River embankment has begun to slip in several places.

Remediation efforts are underway with crews beginning work Tuesday, but the public is advised to stay off the roadways until water levels have receded and the embankment can be built back up.

According to the Muskingum County EMA Office, several slips have been documented along Old River Road, with the largest being roughly 600 feet long.

Officials don’t have an exact time when the slips began but believe it coincided with the large amount of rain and resulting flooding the area has experienced.

The higher river levels have caused soil that is usually not affected to become wet and erode, but so far the roadway hasn’t been directly impacted nor have any residents been displaced.

Multiple sections of roadway have been closed to traffic as crews begin work, weather permitting, to remedy the erosion of the dirt embankment.

The Muskingum County Engineer’s Office estimates the roadway will be closed for two to three weeks, mostly worried about preventing the embankment from further deteriorating so as to not cause a bigger catastrophe, such as damage to the roadway.

Crews will dig out the wet sloppy dirt and replace it with a combination of dump rock and large rock to build the embankments back up.

In the meantime, the roadway will remain closed, day and night, until remediation efforts have been successful. Motorists are encouraged to seek alternative routes.