Custom «Hazel Dell Road» Essay Paper

Hazel dell road, in spring field Illinois is famous for its potholes. The journey from the Franklin Park Estate to the city of Springfield or the University of Illinois at Springfield is one that most residents dread to take. Business people, students and residents of the estates use this road. The residents and students are the most affected since they need to use this road on a daily basis to complete their daily tasks. This road has become a menace to many, especially to my family, and I, because we take daily trips to the city. We have been experiencing this bumpy ride for many years, and it turning out to be an expensive one. Therefore, it is upon the community, to take action to solve this problem.

Discussion

A) Problem

When the Hazel dell road was constructed, its main purposes were to serve the community to and from the city. This road has continually become a necessity for the people of Franklin Park Estate because they have to endure it every day. As a result, the road begun to be depleted slowly forming potholes, which have become a pain to the residents of the Franklin Park Estate. In an effort, to solve the problem every politician has been using the road as a way to woo voters to vote for him or her. After being voted, the politicians forget their promises of repairing the road, thus the road continues to be forgotten leading to the problem escalating (Illinois Times).

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Hazel road is the only road that connects the residents of Franklin Park Estate to the city and other areas. It is because of this, the problems pertaining to the road need to be solved with immediate effect. In order to this, the causes of the potholes need to be established so that the problem can be solved permanently. We as a community have to put our efforts to solve this problem ones and for all.

B) Causes

Potholes do not come by themselves; there must be some causes that have led to this problem for an unusually long time. One of the causes for this problem might be poor quality construction. When the road was constructed, the contractors might have done a shoddy job so that they could benefit on the contract. As a result, the road has continually become depleted leading to the formation of the potholes on the various parts of the road. Additionally, it is because of this poor construction, the road might have led to many politics leading to potholes. The politicians or the contractors might not be affected by the problem but the residents (Monismith and Melony 23). Therefore, the politicians and the contractors might do shoddy work. It is because of this reason the community needs to come together solve the problem.

Another cause of the problem might be the heavy traffic on the road that has continually grown in the region. In the past, when the road was constructed, the road was narrow only meant to handle a small number of vehicles that were coming in and out of the city. However, as the city continued to grow, there was an increase in the number of vehicles and residents that were using the region. After this increase, the road might have started to become overloaded with the heavy traffic that was increase almost every year (Monismith and Melony 42). As a result of this, road could not take it any more thus causing the different potholes in the road. Additionally, development of the building projects could have resulted in overloading this road due to the heavy transportation of machinery and the vehicle used.

The last cause that might have caused the potholes on the road is the cold weather. Different research about the causes shows that the cold weather is a leading factor of potholes. For instance, Hazel dell road has a poor drainage system that leads to flooding of the road. When there is flooding the water, tends to fill in the cracks and other spaces on the road. During the cold seasons in Springfield, the water condenses to form ice. As water condenses, it increases in size as compared to when it is in liquid form (Behnia, Sarfraz, Eshan, and William 72). Therefore, the water that has filled up the cracks condenses thus expanding the different cracks on the roads. Eventually, this leads to the formation of potholes on the road.

C) Solutions

There are several solutions to this problem of potholes on this Hazel dell road. The first solution that would be long term would be the total demolishing of the road and then constructing a new road that uses better technology. It will also take into account of the number of vehicles that will use this road. The problem with this solution though is that it is expensive. It will require funds from the State and this would take long before the budget is drawn and the money is allocated to the project. Additionally, the politics that are involved in allocating money to projects are too much and time consuming.

The second solution would be to resurface the road. This will not be as expensive as the construction of the new road, but it will need work force from the community. The problem is that we do not have the work force, and it may require us to hire some from the outside thus causing us a lot of money. If we decided to undertake the project as a community, it would take long. The cold and rainy season may interfere with our works, therefore, lending us helpless and having done more damage than good.

The third solution, which will work for the community is the patching of the potholes and the creation of drainage channels to divert the water away from the road (Monismith and Melony 51). This solution is not expensive because it will involve less usage of construction material, since we will only be repairing the damaged parts. In addition, the method is not time consuming as it may only take a few weeks. The funds for the patching  the potholes will be difficult to solicit but , we as a community should conduct a fair where all funds collected from the fair will go into repairing the road. The fair will include people selling items that they no longer require or items that they have made like cupcakes. This is an effort of the whole community and, therefore, everyone should strive and get involved.

The students from the university, who know about construction, should volunteer the information about patching of the potholes. The drainage construction does not require so much know how as the reconstruction of the road, so the students will be able to handle it. This entire works will require people to volunteer and help so that we can accomplish the project. The patching of the potholes will solve the problem of these potholes expanding and becoming large. On the other hand, the drainage system will ensure that there is no water that lodges in the cracks of the road, where it ends up creating potholes.

Conclusion

Although patching the potholes will not make the road as smooth as we would prefer it, it will be a start to solving our problems. The key factor though will be that we have tried to curb some of the causes contributing to the potholes on the road. The drainage channels will reduce the amount of water lodging on the roads and reduce the impact that the change in weather has on the roads. The patching of the potholes will fill them and decrease their likelihood to enlarge.

It is better taking the first step to solve the problem, although we have not solved it entirely it is worth than standing and watching as things go from bad to worse and no action is being taken.