Road rage

I've got it.

Driving the truck home with a customer's trimming machine in back today, I decided to take a back road. E B C Townline Road in Rock County takes about a mile off the trip.

The last time I drove this road, it was in terrible shape - potholes and spots where the pavement was gone for three foot patches down to gravel. Well, today, I found the local road crew had "patched" the worst areas.

They must use these back roads as a training ground for patching crews. The job was barely adequate to make the worst patches navigable without breaking the suspension. The quality was what one would expect from someone's brother-in-law's political patronage job in Chicago. Not anywhere near the quality I have come to expect in Wisconsin - at least on major highways.

That was OK - then I got to the intersection of Carver's Rock Road going south. This used to be a 'Y' on Carver's Rock, so traffic in and out of that road could turn without slowing excessively.

The local brainiacs in charge decided to make it a literal 'Y' - with no straight connection across the top for E B C Townline Road. One evidently is expected to make the left onto southbound Carver's Rock Road, then make a sharp right to get back on the westbound road. They excavated about a foot of pavement out between the arms of the 'Y', and there was no warning as to construction.

I hit the excavated area going about 50. It's at the top of a hill, so it's invisible until you get about 50 yards from the excavation. With a load in the bed, I was not inclined to slam on the brakes, and simply bounced through. Lucky me - nothing got bent or broken.

People in positions of power that do things like this are the reason God invented tar, feathers, and rails, if not tall trees, a horse, and a rope.

Nastygrams going out as soon as I find out who to send them to...

Update - I called WI DOT - they told me to talk to Rock County. Rock County told me it was the Town of Clinton's business. Left a message at the number for the town supervisor. He never returned my call - but on the way to deliver that machine, I took the town line road - and now there are big barricades up to warn about the dropoff. So my calling had a good effect.