ROXBURY — Workers with the Maine Department of Transportation repaired a section of Route 17 on Friday morning, a day after heavy rain caused the Swift River to flood and wash it out.

A long stretch of the highway was originally closed to traffic Thursday night after the Swift River flooded near the Roxbury-Byron town line.

Selectman Tim Derouche, who is also town road commissioner, said the Roxbury Fire Department closed off the road while the Maine Department of Transportation set up barricades and cones on the section that was washed out.

Derouche predicted that Roxbury received “around 4 inches of rain,” with some  sections of Route 17 under “two inches of rain.”

“It’s weird, because we had a good amount of rain here, but I heard that five miles down the road in Mexico, they were only getting about a half-inch,” Derouche said. “We must’ve been caught smack dab in the worst of it.”

MDOT worked on the washed-out section until early Friday morning and eventually opened the road to allow one lane of traffic. Sometime after 10 a.m., the washed-out section was completely open.

mdaigle@sunjournal.com