Road maintenance

i’m not going to talk about the election.

This is the morning after and all across the nation people are waking up happy or sad.  Some may already be digging in for the next fight.

Locally, i’m happy about most of the outcome.  i hope all of you out there are also happy with your local outcomes.  Kudos to those that lost but never gave up trying and congrats to those that won.

Over the past few months the media has revolved so much around this election it is a relief to have the results and get back to the business of life.

Here on St. Croix roads and bush are bedeviling all of us.  Our roads are substandard to say the least.  They were created first by widening the donkey cart tracks, packing down the dirt, and allowing all manner of transport on them.

Historically, the donkey cart tracks were instrumental in moving the sugar cane from the fields to the ships and moving other goods from the ships to the estates.  Most of the tracks just went to the closest shore so boats could move the cane up and down the coast to the two towns. St. Croix had a small population and didn’t need many roads.

As the island became more developed and the need for roads, not just tracks increased, the donkey tracks found themselves being paved over.  Estate owners in the early 1800’s banded together and laid out dirt roads that we still use today.  Unfortunately, none of the new roads were ever meant to be used by cars and trucks and so our problems with them have just multiplied.

When it was decided to pave over the old dirt roads nothing was done to create a better substratum.  Four or five inches of asphalt were slapped on and hoo boy a lovely paved road that started showing wear and tear in the first year of life.  This has been the way roads have been built on the island ever since.  No concern for drainage, or slope, or longevity.

Today we have two lane roads that you can barely call two lane roads for much of the year.  Our annual rainfall is upwards of 45 inches and the plants love it.  They love it so much that you can see the bush grow inches in as little as a few hours after a rain.  These fast growing plants quickly eat into the roads making passable lanes smaller and smaller.  Those with newer cars not wanting to scratch their finish end up riding down the center line causing all kinds of havoc.

Not only does all this rain make the bush grow, it also comes down in such torrents that it deposits rocks and silt everywhere; it gouges out potholes on asphalt roads and creates mini grand canyons on dirt roads.  Runoff is a problem that our engineering department has never been able to solve.

This year, and the year isn’t over yet, we have had over 60 inches of rain and our roads are a mess;  we have car eating potholes, bush that has grown so far into the road that some are only one lane now. 

Back in the day when the planters had to tend and pay for the roads, there weren’t many of them.  Today, taxes have given us paved roads but seemingly not enough money to maintain them all.  i don't want to go back to donkey carts and dirt roads and the wealthy maintaining them or only the wealthy able to drive over them by paying tolls.  i think this is a problem all over the country that we need to address.

Anyway for us here in the islands the roads are a pressing concern.  i hope our new legislators are up to the task and can find the money to cut the bush and patch the holes.

So until next week keep this in mind, be quick to listen and slow to unhinge.