Oct. 11, 2001 – Help is on the way for residents who've long been dodging ruts and rocks driving on Route 108. Rod Platzke, construction program manager for the Federal Highway Administration, said Thursday that rebuilding of the road should start in about five months.
The 700 feet nearest Route 107 will be rebuilt, Platzke said, and Route 107 from Coral Bay to the V.I. National Park road to Lameshur will be paved. He said preliminary work that included solving major drainage problems and installing some swales on Route 107 was finished about a year ago.
"The next job will make it nice and smooth," he said.
Both jobs are to go out to bid in three months, with work to start two months after that. Platzke estimated it will take the contractor about six months to finish paving Route 107 and rebuilding Route 108. He said the projects will cost about $3 million to $5 million, paid for with federal funds.
Easily described as "the road from Hell," Route 108 runs from Route 107 near Just Pepe's Restaurant outside Coral Bay through Bordeaux to Centerline Road. One chunk that starts 700 feet from the road's end near Route 107 is paved. It runs uphill for a length that would span several city blocks before it turns again to dirt. Another chunk is paved where Route 108 meets Centerline Road.
Residents have complained repeatedly about the section of Route 108 closest to Route 107, which is filled with deep ruts and large boulders. At one point last year, some of them trucked dirt to the roadbed from a construction project site in Coral Bay in an attempt to make it more passable.
Emily Cena, a resident who uses the worst part of Route 108, was a bit skeptical that work would really begin. "There's always some kind of story about the road repair," she said.
Residents navigate the road by driving very slowly and carefully, she said. "And it keeps the tourists out," she added, referring to the lack of privacy that can result when visitors find easy access to go sightseeing in a neighborhood.
