The Maine Department of Transportation has designed the new Route 114 in Gorham with much more in mind than everyday passage between Gorham and Standish. They have made a multi purpose section of highway remarkable for its many qualities.
It is to be a highway worthy of the name “Skyline Drive” – a beautiful new roadway over which, for nearly a third of the distance, drivers can cruise with neither shoulders nor trees degrading their passage. Removal of trees has been with the firmness of Grant at Vicksburg – “I propose to move upon your works without delay” – and digging of ditches has been with the enthusiasm of the boy looking for a pony under a pile of horse manure on Christmas Day.
As a result, this essentially curve-free, beautifully paved thoroughfare will soon be driven with the thrill of being two seconds away from the depths of a ditch that can instantly swallow a Hummer limousine. What’s more, they’ve added a new quality to the scenic beauty of rural Maine. While enjoying this excitement, drivers can enjoy intimate views of roadside living rooms rendered naked by the removal of any natural growth more than 3 feet tall.
This work is to cost a bit over $6 million, but does have an economic justification beyond pleasant passage, a justification close to being patriotic. Thanks to the numbers of huge mature roadside trees that the engineers have turned into firewood, there should be a measurable reduction of fuel oil needed for heat. Thus, the road, in its own way, provides a minor consideration in getting us out of Iraq a bit sooner.
And that’s not all. There is an additional safety benefit. By providing a barrier between vehicles and residences, roadside living rooms are now safer. The remarkable roadside ditches will act as safety barriers for homeowners. There is no way anything less than a helicopter can jump one of these moats.
Beyond making available multi-cords of firewood from slaughtered trees, the ditches also save nearby farmers money by eliminating the need for pasture fencing. While a nimble sheep might navigate one of these canyons, no cow in the world could jump one. There does remain a problem of recovery for a cow careless enough to fall in, for there are no cowboys with lariats in Gorham. A backhoe with a large bucket will be needed, but the transportation department may have plans to have these on hand.
Although apparently unplanned, at about the middle of this new road between the two communities, still another benefit for athletes is offered – this one for class I-skill kayakers. On a rainy day, they can ride the rapids down the north side of Fort Hill where the ditches will become wild flumes of navigable water with skillfully placed culvert obstacles.
Bikers, however, beware. If a careless vehicle owns the travel lane, you are between a rock and a hard place best described as a car and a chasm.
Compare this fine engineering to the much-admired traffic circle, also in Gorham at the intersection of routes 202 and 237. This artistic, cleverly designed 2000-or-so square feet of broken brick offers entertainment to waiting drivers as they view the passing merry-go-round. They can watch other motorists, like the mythical fillilu bird, fly around and around in ever decreasing concentric circles until they eventually disappear up their —.
Autobahns, eat your hearts out!!
Rodney Quinn, a resident of Gorham, is an author and former secretary of state.
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