By Josh Salm/Staff Writer
SOMEWHERE ON RT. 94 — As I listened to the Boston Celtics struggle to beat the Charlotte Bobcats the other night, the voice of my driving instructor echoed in my head on that long, dark drive as I made my way east from Dexter to Corinth following a school board meeting.
“Now remember, look down the left side of the roadway, then the right side, then look ahead, and repeat. Left, right, middle… left, right, middle. Hey put two hands on the car. Oh look, a gas station, turn in here. I need more food,” said the man our class all knew simply as Brian, the grossly overweight, sketchy Driver’s Ed instructor.
So, while I made my way home that night along the winding state road, my eyes automatically began to scan the road like I was taught to do nearly 10 years ago. One reason for this was to look out deer, those pesky animals that somehow are no where to be found when I’m out hunting but I can see them just fine out the windshield of my truck all the time.
Now that the snow is nearly gone and the grasses are turning green again, deer are out in full force again. There were three deer along the roads that night, though all of them were far enough off the road that they did not cause too much concern.
See, it was not the deer I was afraid of in the roadway. It’s not that I’m looking to hit a deer, because I know they can cause a good bit of damage. It’s just that, at least with deer they have eyes that shine back when the headlights hit them, giving me some warning.
No, it’s something more sinister I was on the lookout for that night, something that can create a lot of damage and causes me to tense up every time I take to the roadway.
The culprits: potholes and frost heaves, the inevitable destroyer of Maine roadways.
They sneak up out of nowhere, picking up a normally flat roadbed or dropping it down a foot from the original position in some spots, pulling in a tire and jerking you and your car all over the roadway. Suspensions creak and moan, wanting no more of the pain. Drivers cringe, weave and maneuver around these obstacles as if they were making their way through a wreck on a NASCAR track.
With the snow and ice cleared off the roadways and the frost heaves starting to settle, it is becoming painfully obvious just how bad the roadways in the region are getting — and the sad part is many of the worst roads are state routes. A large section of Route 7 between Dover-Foxcroft and Dexter is getting so bad that I will go out of my way to Route 23 to avoid having my teeth chatter all the way to the Shiretown’s neighbor to the south.
There are countless other roads that are getting bad too, like most of route 6/15 between Guilford and Greenville and Route 6/16 between Dover-Foxcroft and Milo. Heck, Route 6/16 from Orneville and Milo looks like it was just repaved a few years back and it is already littered with frost heaves and potholes.
In all honesty, every path from I-95 to Piscataquis County is a ride that will test a car’s suspension, a person’s driving skills, as well as their aversion to pain and suffering. At least when the DOT fixes Route 15 south of Dover-Foxcroft between Charlotte White and Foxbrook, that there will be one smooth(er) ride into one city in the county. Now what about the other 16 cities, two plantations and part of the UTs?
And what about Dexter? Route 7 in downtown Dexter is just awful as well, and that shocks me because it’s in middle of town. That’s a road that needs to be fixed just to help the town maintain some kind of business flow through the city without diverting traffic to all of its side streets.
I’ve bounced along miles of these roads over the past few months with my new pick-up truck, going to one meeting or the next. Each day I take to the roads, I tense up because I know I’ll inevitably hit some kind of road hazard and I shutter at the thought of damaging my new wheels this early into my ownership of it (wait, the bank’s ownership of the truck that I get to drive and pay for).
To put it in perspective, I just sent in my third truck payment and I already have an appointment to take it to the auto shop to have the front struts replaced. Three months, 6,000 miles and now two new struts. And I’m fairly certain that I hit a substantial pothole that fateful night from Dexter that has knocked my alignment all out of whack as well.
I guess all I can say is “Thanks, Maine DOT.” Thanks for the roller coaster ride along your roadways you put all of us through every day and for putting that obnoxious voice of Brian’s back into my head. At least I won’t fall asleep any time soon.
SOMEWHERE ON RT. 94 — As I listened to the Boston Celtics struggle to beat the Charlotte Bobcats the other night, the voice of my driving instructor echoed in my head on that long, dark drive as I made my way east from Dexter to Corinth following a school board meeting.
“Now remember, look down the left side of the roadway, then the right side, then look ahead, and repeat. Left, right, middle… left, right, middle. Hey put two hands on the car. Oh look, a gas station, turn in here. I need more food,” said the man our class all knew simply as Brian, the grossly overweight, sketchy Driver’s Ed instructor.
So, while I made my way home that night along the winding state road, my eyes automatically began to scan the road like I was taught to do nearly 10 years ago. One reason for this was to look out deer, those pesky animals that somehow are no where to be found when I’m out hunting but I can see them just fine out the windshield of my truck all the time.
Now that the snow is nearly gone and the grasses are turning green again, deer are out in full force again. There were three deer along the roads that night, though all of them were far enough off the road that they did not cause too much concern.
See, it was not the deer I was afraid of in the roadway. It’s not that I’m looking to hit a deer, because I know they can cause a good bit of damage. It’s just that, at least with deer they have eyes that shine back when the headlights hit them, giving me some warning.
No, it’s something more sinister I was on the lookout for that night, something that can create a lot of damage and causes me to tense up every time I take to the roadway.
The culprits: potholes and frost heaves, the inevitable destroyer of Maine roadways.
They sneak up out of nowhere, picking up a normally flat roadbed or dropping it down a foot from the original position in some spots, pulling in a tire and jerking you and your car all over the roadway. Suspensions creak and moan, wanting no more of the pain. Drivers cringe, weave and maneuver around these obstacles as if they were making their way through a wreck on a NASCAR track.
With the snow and ice cleared off the roadways and the frost heaves starting to settle, it is becoming painfully obvious just how bad the roadways in the region are getting — and the sad part is many of the worst roads are state routes. A large section of Route 7 between Dover-Foxcroft and Dexter is getting so bad that I will go out of my way to Route 23 to avoid having my teeth chatter all the way to the Shiretown’s neighbor to the south.
There are countless other roads that are getting bad too, like most of route 6/15 between Guilford and Greenville and Route 6/16 between Dover-Foxcroft and Milo. Heck, Route 6/16 from Orneville and Milo looks like it was just repaved a few years back and it is already littered with frost heaves and potholes.
In all honesty, every path from I-95 to Piscataquis County is a ride that will test a car’s suspension, a person’s driving skills, as well as their aversion to pain and suffering. At least when the DOT fixes Route 15 south of Dover-Foxcroft between Charlotte White and Foxbrook, that there will be one smooth(er) ride into one city in the county. Now what about the other 16 cities, two plantations and part of the UTs?
And what about Dexter? Route 7 in downtown Dexter is just awful as well, and that shocks me because it’s in middle of town. That’s a road that needs to be fixed just to help the town maintain some kind of business flow through the city without diverting traffic to all of its side streets.
I’ve bounced along miles of these roads over the past few months with my new pick-up truck, going to one meeting or the next. Each day I take to the roads, I tense up because I know I’ll inevitably hit some kind of road hazard and I shutter at the thought of damaging my new wheels this early into my ownership of it (wait, the bank’s ownership of the truck that I get to drive and pay for).
To put it in perspective, I just sent in my third truck payment and I already have an appointment to take it to the auto shop to have the front struts replaced. Three months, 6,000 miles and now two new struts. And I’m fairly certain that I hit a substantial pothole that fateful night from Dexter that has knocked my alignment all out of whack as well.
I guess all I can say is “Thanks, Maine DOT.” Thanks for the roller coaster ride along your roadways you put all of us through every day and for putting that obnoxious voice of Brian’s back into my head. At least I won’t fall asleep any time soon.
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