To The Editor:
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the new guardrails along Route 100 where the new paving is going on? Route 100 is a scenic byway and the newly installed, square channeled guardrails are atrocious! They are singularly unattractive and cheap looking and unless they are planning to remove the existing, curved type guardrails (which would be a shame), they are a strange and abrupt stylistic change from what we have had along this scenic route. It seems to me that the towns should have been apprised of this departure from the norm and had a say in what was put in place after the (wonderful) new pavement was laid.
While I am on the subject, we have just learned that there is no plan to repave Route 100 from the Warren town line through the Granville Gulf for five years! This rough, patchwork quilt of a road with a large portion of the southbound lane washed out from our most recent rains is an embarrassment to all the scenic byways represent. Why is it not being maintained in a reasonable manner so that the people who live here and the visiting public are able to admire the scenery instead of watching the pavement for the next pothole? It was bad enough before the new paving in Warren and Waitsfield, but now, the transition from the new blacktop to the old will be magnified even more.
I know the state is short on money for fixing our roads, but I also have driven on many newly paved roads in several areas of the state where the work seemed cosmetic when compared to what we have been living with for a number of years. And why have a scenic byway that is hazardous to the cars and bicycles that use it? What gives?
Vivian Branschofsky
Granville
