We are getting a new corner in the neighborhood, the neighboring township must have some bucks to spend to fix the old township road.
This is a traffic jam at the corner. Potato digging machines were hogging the road.
The corner in progress on day one. This corner is on our usual route when we go for a evening drive. We usually see deer in the hayfield that is just up yonder and is all green. Previously this corner was full of Jack Pines and Milkweed.
We drove down again yesterday to see how it is coming along. Day two.
Old road on the left the new one on the right.
My other baby brother’s construction company is doing the work. It is not done yet…maybe next week. I wonder how the snow will blow…probably off the road.
Other road news concerns our State Hwy 225 that was given to the County along with 9 million dollars for a new road…either that or four way stops at all of the many corners that this stair step road has…it’s new name will be County 26…that will take some getting used to as it has been State 225 ever since I can remember. The County is calling it a dangerous road because you have to slow down for the corners…duh…their other solution is to make it a 40 mph road with 40 mph corners….right now the corners are about 25-30 mph corners…been that way ever since I can remember…and a few were 10 mph corners but great fun on a bike.
Here is an old 1924-1925 Road Map. Can you find the stair steps? The road back then was built on section lines and you had to go through Ponsford to get to Detroit Lakes. Later a new road would bypass Ponsford in effect killing the town…the new road would go from Osage straight west to Detroit Lakes.
10 comments:
I see the stair steps in the map. How strange that they did that, but I guess that they had to. :-)
I believe 225 was the road that inspired Will Weaver to name a road "Dead Indian Road" in his book "Red Earth White Earth". His description of "Dead Indian Road" Matches 225 exactly.
In my time on fire & rescue I never responded to any fatal accidents on the corners, a few on the straight parts but never on the corners. Perhaps they should make the road all corners for safety sake?
I'm betting the stair steps were because the State wasn't able to get right-of-way for the road from the adjacent property owners.
Progress marches on in some townships. We got some new bridges after several hundred years floods...
Odd to change it after all these years. I certainly hope they can see a big difference in fatalities and injuries. Hard to tell by the picture but it doesn't look tremendously different right there. I'm sure it will be, though. :)
The highway 69 north out of Osceola was a lot like that. There are sharp, right and left angle turns all the way to Des Moines. It was the main road for years to get to Des Moines. The solution was I-35. It still has all those turns as my dad use to insist us taking that road to go buy his glasses. Your new corner will be nice to have. The change in the stair step road will take forever.
They sell us new cars and trucks that operate at high speeds and then they don't update the roads. Now the drivers could slow down but that's a problem.
I appreciated Far Guy's comment and it made me think of all the roadside 'memorials' we see along straight stretches of highways.
I'd fix the bridges first! We have some here that I hold my breath when I go over they're so old! We have crosses AND curvy roads but the reason there are accidents on curves here is because people down here drive in the middle of the road to take a curve so they don't have to slow down! Crazy! I hope your taxes don't go up....
They have a great time trading roads around my area. Then they change the numbers or the names. They recently hauled the railway out of our area. It took them a whole summer to tear out all the track and those wood pieces under them. Last week we noticed truck after truck after truck of sand being dumped and tamped on the old rail bed. Apparently the 4x4 club is taking it over for their use. I'd like to know who paid for all that sand! Hopefully it wasn't me.
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