Take a drive down County Road, but do so at your own risk.

With potholes that resemble craters, frequent flooding and no major reconstruction done in 40 years, residents say traveling and living on the road is annoying, hazardous and expensive.

“Oh God, it hits your wallet,” said Jon Gunschel of Marion. “I’ve replaced every suspension on my car, struts, joints – some things I’ve replaced two or three times. It makes you mad because that’s not cheap.”

The 5.5-mile road runs through Marion, Wareham and Rochester, and officials in those towns want the road reclassified to free up federal funding for costly (and overdue) repairs.

It won’t be easy, a regional transportation official said.

And should the road become eligible for state and federal assistance, Transportation Planning Manager Paul Mission says, “It doesn’t mean the money will start flowing immediately.”

Mission’s agency, the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD,) offers planning assistance for transportation, economic and other issues.

Frustrated with the road’s condition, Wareham Selectman Alan Slavin reached out to SRPEDD after discussing it with Marion Selectman Jon Henry. Both have long been SRPEDD delegates for their respective towns.

Rochester Town Administrator Mike McCue also contacted SRPEDD in March. This winter, SRPEDD officials visited several towns for input on a new regional transportation plan.

Fixing County Road was high on Rochester’s list.

“Everybody has been talking about it,” Slavin said. “I brought it forward to put the final nail in the coffin. All three players are in place and now is the time to do this.”

Slavin said the hope is that federal funds would be used to rebuild the road. After that towns would maintain their sections.

Bureaucratic roadblock

State and federal funds are only available for roads that qualify, Mission said.

As a local street, County Road does not meet Massachusetts Department of Transportation requirements.

Mission said the state has a reclassification process should a road or street’s function change due to population or traffic increases.

With a surge of development in West Wareham, Slavin said funding might be available for what was once a sleepy back road.

Many now use the road to access the Wareham Crossing shops. Soon, a Super Walmart will be completed nearby, which will most likely increase traffic.

In early June, Mission will meet with Marion, Rochester and Wareham officials to help them navigate the bureaucratic route to possible reclassification.

Essentially, Mission said SRPEDD would compile traffic data, road dimensions and similar information on County Road this summer.

Once collected the information will be presented to Mass DOT. The state agency will then decide if County Road should be designated as a rural major collector road.

That designation would make federal funds available.

Mission said that the federal highway department has different classifications for roads. From interstate highways to streets with less volume, roads are classified based on traffic patterns.

“The best way to imagine the system would be to think of a watershed,” Mission said. “Small brooks and streams feed into larger streams, which then flow into rivers before ending up in the main body of water.”

Even with the designation, Mission said money might not be available until 2020.

The three towns do have SRPEDD’s Transportation Improvement Program available them, but officials would have to apply to get a reclassified County Road in the program.

“There’s a long waiting list,” Mission said.

Each year, the transportation program has $18 million available for projects. From 2016 to 2019, all of that money is tied up in existing projects, Mission said.

Are we there yet?

For long-suffering residents, relief can’t come soon enough.

Henry Pennington of Wareham purchased his home on County Road in 1953. The last time major work was done occurred in the 1970s.

And it shows, he said.

“[The town] spends money on patching the street and it means nothing. After a storm or heavy traffic it blows back onto my lawn,” Pennington said. “I can’t mow because there are chunks of asphalt on my lawn.”

Pennington, and many other residents, said driving down the middle of the road is necessary at times to avoid deep potholes.

“I’m waiting to get ticketed for driving down the middle of the street,” he said.

Others aren’t so careful.

“I’ve watched people go by here at sixty miles per hour,” Pennington said. “Maybe they’re not driving their own cars. Think about what would happen if you hit one of those potholes.”

Speeders aside, he said Wareham must consider a thorough fix for the road. Nothing less will do, said the former road construction equipment salesman.

“I’m talking from experience, they need to start over,” Pennington said.

Down the road, Jon Gunschel and his wife Debbie have co-owned the Ansel S. Gurney House in Marion for more than 35 years.

Being on the much-maligned street isn’t good business for the gift shop and restaurant.

“I don’t think the road has helped,” Gunschel said.

Gunschel said he too hasn’t seen major work done on the road since the 1970s.

He’s alerted state Rep. Bill Straus to the problem. The Mattapoisett Democrat chairs the Joint Committee on Transportation. Gunschel said he hasn’t received a response yet.

Been down this road before

This isn’t the first attempt to reclassify County Road. When Marion Town Administrator Paul Dawson arrived in 2007 he said talks were underway. In addition to making repairs, a bike path was proposed.

But then, “the talks broke down,” Dawson said.

Another issue that stalled progress was building the road to modern standards. Most likely, the road would have to be widened, which would cut into property owner’s land.

“That has to be taken into account,” Dawson said. “There’s the question of how well that would be received.”

Rochester Highway Surveyor Jeff Eldridge also said the towns again applied for a reclassification a few years ago, though nothing came of it.

Of the three towns, Rochester’s section appears to be the best maintained. Eldridge explained that each highway department is responsible for the section of County Road within its town limits.

That hasn’t stopped residents who don’t know the boundaries from calling him for service.

“I’ve gotten calls for repairs and downed limbs on the Wareham side,” Eldridge said. “There’s nothing I can do.”