NORWAY – The state Department of Transportation has promised to upgrade a section of Route 117 in Norway this summer, but there is no permanent fix in sight.

“We know it needs to be rebuilt. There’s no funding identified for it,” the DOT’s Herb Thomson said of the 2.8-mile section of road that has been marked for reconstruction.

For motorists driving the stretch of road between Norway’s Lake Penneseewassee and Harrison village, the trip has become an obstacle course, particularly in recent weeks as frost heaves and potholes create havoc on vehicles that swerve and brake seemingly every few yards to avoid ruts.

“It’s really bad,” reported Deb Ladner, who drives the road daily and has been trying to get the state agency to do something about it.

This week, DOT employees were dispatched to the road in an attempt to temporarily smooth out the rough edges.

“We’ve got to do something to keep them from wrecking their cars,” said Matt Beardsley of DOT as he directed traffic. A five-mile road section is being filled with crushed stone dust to get rid of the sharp edges caused by potholes and frost heaves, he said.

DOT spokesman Mark Latti said Route 117 is on the department’s six-year road projects plan and it’s scheduled to be reconstructed. But, he said, because there is no funding for a major road job, there will only be what he called a “maintenance surface treatment” done on the road from the intersection of routes 117 and 118 to the Gore Road intersection this summer.

“It’s a holding action,” explained Thomson. A new surface will be put on the road, but there will be no reconstruction, and the work will not address drainage or the disintegrating road base. “It’s really a periodic measure we apply to most of our roads in this category. It’s well short of reconstruction,” he said.

Last summer, a section of Route 26 in Oxford was resurfaced when money was unavailable for a needed road-reconstruction job. At that time, DOT officials said the resurfacing could hold the road for another eight to 10 years.

Town Manager David Holt said the town is unable to address the issue because it is a state road.

Although Holt said he recalls as many as three public hearings being held on the issue over the past years, nothing happened to resolve the matter. “They would have to do it,” he said of road work.

Thomson said once warm weather comes, frost heaves should settle down. But with heavy truck loads and cold weather there is always a risk the road is going to be damaged. He said some 1,800 miles of road across the state need to be posted to limit heavy weight trucks in an attempt to preserve the roads. About 650 miles have been posted so far.

“It isn’t extraordinary. We anticipated this,” he said of the road problems this winter.

Latti said there are 8,000 miles of roads with potholes and that $2.5 million has already been spent this season in patching potholes.