Coming up to the intersection, the mountain of dirt rose majestically to the sky. In the right place, it could be the beginning of a ski slope or a sled adventure in the wintertime, but no it was just the detritus of road improvement.
This picturesque (forgive the hyperbole) sight was what was gleaned from the project on what is called the Lower Terre Haute Road (Lower T) which runs from Paris to West Terre Haute, IN, for about 20 miles. Of all the routes into and out of our hometown of Paris, IL, this one is in the best shape. Although the roadway twists and turns and goes up and down hills, it is smooth and almost bumpless. Being in the country, it is also prime real estate for road kill, from deer to racoons to rabbits and other small mammals.
All this dirt comes from the effort to our local Department of Transportation (DOT) to improve the shoulders and ditches along the road. Drainage of water and width of the shoulders to improve safety seem to be the catalyst behind this ambitious project. We are in awe of the care taken by our betters to improve the lot of us who have to drive the byways our of our little burg.
And it continues to amaze how the motorists of this small county and town are catered to in our need to drive from place to place. We live in a small subdivision of the ‘city’ of Paris, a place carved out of farmland and pastureland about 25 years ago and home to some of the more affluent houses in the local environs. But care of the street that loops around the home sites has not kept up with expectations, especially when we look closely at the tax bills that have come this fall. When taking my daily sojourn (walk) around, so much of the street was littered with potholes and broken surfaces that to avoid a twisted ankle took more looking down than up.
I wondered if the mayor or town council members lived out here with us if the streets would have been allowed to deteriorate as much as they had.
But all that changed two weeks ago. A crew from the city’s street department came out with a street sweeper, making a couple of circuits to clean the surface as best as possible. Then, surprisingly, came the truck with asphalt to do some serious patching. This was the best job of doing that pothole filling and surface smoothing we have seen in the almost 14 years we have resided here. Walking is now as easy as on the main streets of the city. The only drawback was how the batches looked; black splotches on gray surfaces did not make for the best aesthetics.
All was not finished, however. This past week came the oil tanker, spreading a film of that stuff followed by a truck with chat, small rock which, when pressed down would make a pretty solid base for cars and trucks to traverse. From sad experience, this meant that until such a hard surface was created, we must not drive too fast or the oil, which has a tendency to seep up through the gravel, would be thrown up by the wheels onto the car’s sides. But for now, the street looks much better, and is a credit to our tax dollars at work.
What, you might ask, does all this have to do with the quality of life in a small town?
That is a good question, but it is answered when you look at the unique position that one road into and out of Paris has. We are about twenty miles from Terre Haute, IN, and because many of us have doctors in that city, and there are many more opportunities for shopping there, one highway seems to take the bulk of the traffic from here to there. That highway is U. S. 150, which rises somewhere in Iowa, snakes its way down into Illinois until it gets to Paris. Then it becomes a major artery to Terre Haute. About half of this route is in Illinois and the other half is in Indiana.
The problem that drivers, going east to Terre Haute or west to Paris, is that this road is in terrible shape. Depending on the age and size of the car you drive determines whether or not it is a very bumpy ride or one that rattles the fillings in your teeth. It is impossible to write a legible sentence while riding in a car on this stretch of roadway.
While Edgar County is improving the Lower T, a county road, nothing has been done to improve 150, a federal highway. Those of us who live in Illinois saw a glimmer of hope when our present governor, J. B. Pritzker, had passed when he assumed office in January 2019, a doubling of the per gallon gas tax, from 19 cents a gallon to 38 cents per.
Indiana spent thousands of hours and millions of dollars to improve a state highway, but also did nothing to smooth the way for shoppers and commuters on their share of the federal highway. Until this year, all they did was patch potholes and smooth shoulders. What they did was truly amazing. From the Illinois line to West Terre Haute, Indians, they REPAINTED THE STRIPES, both white and yellow, on their stretch of 150. Now when we travel that piece of roadway, we marvel at how much better it looks, even as we fear for the structural integrity of our car as we bump and smash over the potholes.
That was done early in the summer, and we despaired of any work being done on 150 in Illinois. But this past week, out came the construction signs. At long last, improvement would be made in our frequent sojourns from our place to Terre Haute. What was being done, you query? Our DOT was replacing a large percentage of the steel barriers in various places along U. S. 150. Construction took less than a week, but now when we turn our car east, we can drive between gleaming, shining NEW guardrails. We can now marvel at our fortune, with a more beautiful look as we travel. The surface has not been touched, but we can feel better, even as the car jolts along hitting the potholes we cannot miss, by that string of new barriers, designed in part to keep us on the road and our vehicles shaken up.
We feel good that our fellow citizens who live along the Lower T are getting some good out of the gas tax, and just pray that they have some sympathy for those of us who are condemned to live by and drive on some of the worst roads in the state.