The other day, my wife Paula and I were in Wichita and as she was driving the truck through a construction zone on Interstate I-135, she commented, “Do you ever think there will be a time that we don’t have a construction zone to drive through?” I thought for a second and replied, “I hope not. “No doubt, we have all have become used to seeing the “Orange Traffic Cones” and detours as we maneuver through the maze of detours, traffic markers and narrow one-way roads as there is always something under construction.
Simply construction work on roads is never endless. One, they have yet to design a road surface that will last forever. A large percentage of the streets in Junction City are asphalt surface. No doubt it is a good surface, but it does wear out and is subject to deterioration by weather and yes, it can get potholes. (I get reminded of that often). Also, maintenance has to be done to keep the streets in a decent condition. As we have experienced, if you get behind on the maintenance of the asphalt, it takes like “Forever” to catch back up. Of course, with that comes a big “price tag”. Concrete streets do cost more but do require less maintenance. The downside is when they go bad there is big issues to deal with. So, just from that standpoint along, construction work will always have to be done.
The other reason for construction is that there is always a need to make changes. Traffic patterns change and road construction is needed to meet those changes. I am old enough to remember when Interstate 70 did not span across the State of Kansas from “coast to coast” of the State and for those who grew up in
Western Kansas it was a few years after this portion of the State had the interstate before us out west had the four-lane traffic way. Of course, imagine what a road trip to St. Louis the East or to Denver to West would be like without a great interstate road.
When I was manager of a City in South Central Kansas, the community had “brick” streets. The bricks probably were a great surface for many years, but they did become rough as they aged. This community wanted to change from bricks to concrete, but there were some who wanted the “nostalgia” of the bricks. Ultimately concrete was chosen as it was the best surface for the current day traffic usage.
When I grew up on the farm south of Hays, Kansas most of the roads going to Hays were “gravel” or “sand” roads. When I got back to the farm now and then, some of these roads are now asphalt surfaced because change had made it a necessity. Many people tell me that the street in front of my house was a gravel road 50 years ago. Where my home sets was a pasture with cattle and a ways out in the country. Of course, over the years Junction City grew and the geographic area of the City did as well. Just 20 years ago there were hardly any homes west of Highway 77 in this City and now it is a growing area. Ron down in the Building and Codes Department told me that there are 14 homes under construction presently in the City. Not too many years ago there were not that many homes built in an entire year. Yes, there was the boom in the first decade of the century. Of course, we know there were too many subdivisions built and the City Land Bank was the result. However, in the last 2 months over 200 Land Bank lots have been sold and it appears that construction of more new homes will continue. Naturally the new High School built where it is has definitely helped. The challenge is to continue this growth in the future. I certainly believe that no one had the build subdivisions, and they will come thought, but the bottom-line is the community is growing and recovering from that decision. It had been a tough ride, but as a community we “stayed in the saddle” and road it out.
Some people may argue that change should not occur, but I think we all feel fortunate to have growth of the community over the shrinking of the population in parts of the State. Less people mean fewer services. Less services than mean even fewer and fewer people. A vicious circle and a balance of economic growth is needed to grow the population. As the population grows, the “footprint” of the City grows as well. With that growth there will continue to be the new to continue to build more infrastructure.
As Paula meandered through the traffic construction in Wichita , we both agreed these “under construction” signs are not a bad thing and is a sign of change and hopefully prosperity. Yes, I am sure I will have to remind myself of that as the work on Interstate 70 here by Junction City continues over the next 2 years.