OLD TOWN, Maine — While the intersection of Stillwater Avenue and College Avenue is bumpy, its condition doesn’t concern many motorists who use it regularly.
The subject of six complaints by Bangor Daily News readers on the “See it. Fix it.” feature on the BDN website prompted Old Town Public Works Director John Rouleau Jr. to take a ride over to the busy intersection.
“I try to check that often on the BDN site because I actually find it helpful in terms of letting us know about potential problem areas,” Rouleau said. “I had to go to Bangor and did stop by the intersection, but I didn’t really see anything major.”
Neither did any of the drivers traveling through the spot who were surveyed late Sunday morning.
Chuck Emery, who has lived on Fourth Street in Old Town for 10 years, said the going isn’t as tough as it has been in previous years.
“To tell you the truth, I never really noticed this being particularly bad. It’s just one of those things,” said Emery, who was washing his truck at a do-it-yourself carwash next to McDonald’s off Stillwater. “It’s a fact of life we put up with this every year. Last year I hit a pothole and ruined one of my rims. I had to pay 300-something dollars to fix it.”
Emery’s son Chad is finding it easier to keep smoother road under him while riding around on his 2009 Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle.
“It’s always easier on a bike because we can maneuver around it quicker if we see it,” said Chad Emery. “The only problem I have is the dirt on the sides of the roads. They haven’t really been around with the street sweeper yet.”
Rouleau said his department makes it a point to respond to motorist complaints promptly.
“We’re pretty proactive on that stuff because of the Highway Defect Act,” he said. “We’re mandated to fix areas within 24 hours after we get a complaint or report, because otherwise we could be liable for property damage up to $6,000 caused by a pothole or other defect.”
As many as 15,000 to 20,000 vehicles per day travel through the intersection, according to Rouleau, who has conducted traffic counts at the site.
“It’s a busy road, but I think letting the heavy trucks go back on the Interstate has helped a lot,” said Russ Beadnell, a longtime Old Town resident who was out for a Sunday drive in his 1997 Chevrolet Corvette. “Now that they’ve fixed Forest Avenue going across, I don’t really notice any real bad stretches of road now.”
Many motorists complained about the upper section of Stillwater which runs away from the intersection farther into Old Town. For them, Rouleau has some good news, albeit tempered.
“Stillwater was scheduled to have a section of it resurfaced this year, but that’s been postponed by DOT, from McDonald’s to the cemetery, which is more of a rebuild with a ‘suicide lane’ in the center,” Rouleau said, using an expression for a turning lane in the middle of a roadway. “We resurfaced about a 1,000-foot section last year from the cemetery to about where the elementary school is located.”
Most drivers seem genuinely sympathetic toward the plight of public works employees.
“I think they do the best they can do. You can complain, but it isn’t going to get you anywhere,” said Beadnell. “It’s very expensive for them now. Oil’s way up and tar is more expensive. I feel bad for them, but not bad enough that I want them to up my taxes.”
Odd, but seems the roads in Maine are rougher with many potholes, cracked and broken pavement and roads which frost-heaves have broken the road to such a condition, you have to literally drive your right wheels off the road or swing into the oncoming lane to avoid the hazards. No other place seems to have this problem to the extent Maine has, but those states in “snow regions” have similar but much lesser hazards. Maybe it has something to do with the sewer conditions, or the pipes under the road or what we all know to be the real damager of roads are the heavy busses and trucks. The aggravate used in the asphalt could also be a problem. I don’t know, but when we are traveling Maine at any time of the year, we are very careful to try to avoid these ongoing, existing problems.
The intersection needs a “left turn yield on green” sign for those coming from College Ave extension. There are close calls and blatant cut-offs on a daily basis.
I agree but sadly unless the sign says: “If someone is going straight and you are turning left, they have the right of way.” It probably won’t be understood by those cutting you off.
I was in that intersection on Tuesday past and on Saturday past. I didnt think it was unusually bad. Not great, but, relatively unremarkable. Want bad? Come out to where I live on Rt. 141 in Swanville…last year Worst Road in Maine…by the old boat landing…that’s god-awful. You’d think the State of Maine could fix that tiny little 300-feet of road. Nope. You’d think the Town of Swanville would do it for its citizens, or find a way to get the state to do it. Nope. What DO we pay taxes for? Oh yeah. Schools. Schools that are failing our students. Schools constantly getting lower standards. Schools that contains kids, being paid for, in part, by me. But here I am, without any kids, paying for someone else’s.
My town won’t even take LEAVES as part of its recycling program. What DO our taxes pay for, anyway???
I was watching a 60 minutes special on Novak Djokovic and they were showing video taken in Serbia and I happened to notice that all of the roads are perfect over there and started wondering how a country as poor as Serbia can have better roads than we do in the US??? It’s pretty pathetic that a country with virtually no economy and just getting on its feet again can have better infrastructure than the US, our priorities are way out of whack here.
If the state is going to mandate that our vehicles meet a certain standard i.e. state inspections, than they should keep up their end of the deal by maintaining roads.
I regularly travel on 235 in Hope, 131 through Swanville, and 137 through Waldo, Thorndike, etc and these are some of the worst roads imaginable. I have had to replace wheel bearings, struts, tires, and exhaust in the last two months on my vehicle….most of which can be attributed to regularly traveling roads that are filled with massive bumps, potholes, etc.
I don’t mind a few bumps here and there bit this is out of control and we need a massive overhaul of all the roads in the state. They need to redo them and get it right, not just this skim coat of asphalt to “hold it over for a year or two”. It will be a costly undertaking but a much needed one.
Many of our roads have never been truly rebuilt since the early to mid 1900’s…its time. People just need to be heard and voice their concerns to government officials. If enough noise is made, they will listen.
The Highway Defect Act, a joke at best. Just got done with just over $500 in repairs for my car for a crumbled drop off in the road, I am still out of pocket on those costs, nobody is being held liable for the damage and the state is not repairing the road even.
I’m sorry, but for an intersection that sees 15,000-20,000 vehicles a day and is the first impression for many students who choose to attend the University of Maine and bring their money to the Old Town/Orono area – this intersection is BRUTAL. (This is not to ignore how bad the intersection at the other end of College Ave. is in Orono)
Andrew Neff, you should try coming back to the area during the winter. The intersection is so cracked that to drive through there during the winter (when the intersection arguable gets the most use) you literally can drive no more than 2-3 mph and weave around the mix of giant frost heaves and potholes.
It is sad to see the state and/or the surrounding towns fail to take care of their only land grant & largest university in the state. For a university that is THE reason the area gets the attention that it does and employs so many people from the area you would think that the towns would want to give back to the university.
Take a note from Bangor and put in a round about… I’m looking forward to many more in Bangor. If Old Town doesn’t want to go to that expense try a flower garden in the middle of the road like we have on Howard street
I’m not crazy about round-about’s, though I know they are popular, and do keep the traffic moving well. But if I remember right, that little round-a-bout in Bangor cost a cool $1m (or close to it.)…
Try to navigate that intersection on a motorcycle or a bicycle. It’s atrocious. Just because people don’t participate in the Fix This game, doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of grumbling and grousing. It beats up cars, is usually sandy or gravely, and a motorcyclist has to watch for a path around the potholes instead of watching traffic. That intersection is worse than bad.
I went through that intersection four times last week (twice on Tuesday, twice on Saturday), on a motorcycle, and didn’t even notice anything unusual. If you’re on a motorcycle, riding through that intersection, you should have zero problems. If someone on a bike can’t navigate that unremarkable intersection, they shouldn’t be on two wheels to begin with.
OK, so your on a dirt bike-cross. Try it on a cruiser.
I’ve got 70,000+ miles experience…all of them on cruisers. (primarily Honda Shadow…) Guess the Shadow’s are just that comfy! :-)