Post Road south near Vickery Creek Elementary and Middle schools was closed for much of Thursday after heavy overnight rains caused a drainage culvert to collapse.

According to the state Department of Transportation, detours were set up to relieve congestion as crews worked to repair the damage.

The northbound side of Post Road had reopened by midmorning Thursday, but the DOT was urging motorists to avoid the area if possible.

According to Mark McKinnon, a spokesman with the DOT, the repairs were finished by 4 p.m.

Though officials had initially thought a temporary fix would be required, that ended up not being the case, according to McKinnon

“It’ll be the permanent repair,” he said. “There shouldn’t be any more repairs necessary.

“The road itself was not damaged, just the shoulder. And the culvert itself was not damaged. It’s just water got in behind it and undermined the shoulder a little bit.”

The affected culvert is in the vicinity of a county road project.

In June, the county commission approved a project to extend the reinforced box culvert on Post Road at Bentley Creek to accommodate lengthening the right turn lane into Vickery Middle.

Johnson Landscapes Inc. was awarded the contract for the project, which was estimated to cost $176,116 and deemed time sensitive.

At least one piece of heavy machinery involved in the project was submerged by water Thursday.

The Forsyth County school system begins the 2013-14 school year on Aug. 8.

It was not immediately clear what, if any, impact the road repairs would have on school traffic next week.

Staff writers Alyssa LaRenzie and Jennifer Sami contributed to this report.