By: Diane Benjamin
One of the worst roads in Bloomington was scheduled to be resurfaced this year. The calendar of work kept changing. The last time I checked Hershey Road was scheduled for October, now it isn’t:
https://www.cityblm.org/government/departments/public-works/bloomington-streets#ad-image-1
By spring parts of Hershey will be an off-roading adventure.
West Oakland was also in really bad shape. According to the link above it is suppose to be finished by October 31. I don’t drive west often, if you know how that project is going please comment below.
The link has all the streets completed this year. See if you think roads are a priority. Under Renner, you got a gas tax which is now the only money used to fix roads.
Did Tari keep his campaign promises:
Maybe we should go back to gravel roads! Would be smoother and may even be less costly.
Scrap the top layer off. The base is better than what we have now.
I understand your point, but I really, really doubt that everyone wants thick dust (inside and out) constantly covering vehicles, cracked or broken windshields and dents from flying gravel/rocks. A couple of years ago, I spent some months in rural Missouri (along the U.S.36 corridor) and I will tell you the majority of their rural ‘roads’ ARE gravel…and have been forever. I was never SO GLAD to get back to living where paved roads are the norm, and where gravel ‘roads’ are almost non-existent!!!
Bloomington has been covering their streets with an asphalt/tar slurry, rockchip combo for several years. Obviously much cheaper than patching the existing concrete. The tar/chip must be reapplied every 3 to 4 years because those streets leach tar in warm months. Anybody’s guess where the street/gutter money was spent….pension shortfalls, maybe?
Stay tuned, it didn’t help
The purchase of every new car in Bloomington Normal has a 1% usage tax charged to it. Where is that money being used? It should be used for roads as well.
They are working on West Oakland now.
Have you driven US 150 from Mclunn to Lincoln? Talk about a bad road. IDOT fixed some curbs and sidewalks, but the road still sucks. IDOT says its county’s & city’s problem, County says its IDOTs and citys problem, City says it IDOTs and County’s problem. Nobody is winning aside from auto repair shops!
Try route 9 to Pekin….
51 south is a disaster too
As I travel on Hershey (everyday), I am always amazed that in a city that has the kind of affluence it has and the kind of tax revenue that it has, I am forced to drive on a road (and roads) that should be in a deeply economically depressed city. Where has all the money gone? Where is all the money going?
I avoid one big pothole (going southbound) EVERYDAY and hope that maybe tomorrow they will throw a bucket of hot patch in it. Recently they put about 1/3 of the hot patch they needed into the hole. It is still REALLY bad!
The city government reminds me of a drug addict. Instead of spending money on things that are needed to enhance and maintain their lives, drug addicts spend their money on drugs.
Instead of spending OUR money on the things that are needed to enhance and maintain the city, the leadership here spends it on their addiction to a vision of a Socialist Utopia.
I just want to move around the city without fear of tire rim destruction. They want to honor dead criminals and pour money into a DOA downtown and a nearly worthless bus system.
Tari KEEP a promise? You have a better chance of free food in a Chinese restaurant.
Must say, abnormal IS fixing their roads, and they DIDN’T raise the gas tax..
They just doubled it! Raab Road west of Main isn’t getting fixed. I hear vehicles have gone missing there! 🙂
NOTHING is going to change/improve UNTIL a majority of Bloomington-Normal’s tax-paying citizens
decide they’ve had enough….of a variety of problems…..and vote in responsible, mature adults who’s ONLY purpose is the betterment of the cities they govern!