Dear Upper Providence Police Officer:
Yes, I know I was driving on the wrong side of the road.
Yes, I understand I have been swerving all over the road.
No, I have not been drinking.
The conditions of these roads, however, are enough to 'drive' one to imbibe.
Every morning I use Providence Road to cut across from West Chester Pike to the Media Bypass.
I am lucky in that at that hour of the morning, it's usually just me and the deer out there. And the deer are everywhere.
But they are no longer the No. 1 obstacle on that route. Potholes are.
I think maybe someone waged a war out there and never bothered to tell us. Actually, I guess you could consider what winter does to our roads is something of a war.
We're no longer talking just potholes. These are craters. You could build a condo in some of these. And there are long stretches of the center of the road that have now been eroded down to the previous surface.
It's a little bit like traversing a minefield.
So, with next to no one else on the road at that hour, I navigate it the way a skier would tackle a giant slalom. I weave in and out, by now familiar with the nastiest of these massive holes.
And that is part of the problem.
These giant potholes have been out there for weeks. And most of them have not been touched.
There is some evidence of patching, but for the most part the material used to fill the hole is washed away in a day or two.
We survived winter.
I'm just not all that sure we - or our cars - are going to survive these roads.
Comments
I'm furious. I was driving UNDER the speed limit (due to the crappy road conditions) and through no fault of my own, my tire sunk into out of these craters and now I'm out over 500 dollars for the tow, the tire, and for the bent rim.
I wish there was a way to make the township pay for this.