Crumbling Stretch Of Dempster Street Paves Way To Frustration; 'Where's The Money For This Road?'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Dings, dents, and debris; pothole season is in full swing.
One man in Des Plaines loathes the winter thaw. CBS 2 Morning Insider Lauren Victory shows us why, and what's left of his lawn.
When you buy a home on a busy road, you can't fault the frustrations of traffic; the noise, the congestion, the junk left behind.
What Des Plaines Phil didn't know, however, was he was signing up for two decades of deterioration. His stretch of Dempster Street is falling apart. Lawns, curbs, and medians up and down Dempster Street have been littered with pebbles and large chunks of the crumbling pavement.
"There's boulders up on the lawn. There's cars hitting these boulders. They're getting car damage, I'm sure. They're blowing tires when they hit these potholes. Somebody's going to get hurt," he said. "I actually had a sign in the yard with a number to call."
Phil fears the craters and cracks in Dempster are creating a mess inside his house, too.
"When the truck traffic starts, my bed moves. That's in a two-story brick house. I have kitchen cabinets that rattle," he said. "I know that's not good for a house."
Just a mile west of Phil's home, Dempster Street is newly paved, not a hole in sight.
"I want to know where's the money for this road?" Phil said.
He wrote a letter to the Illinois Department of Transportation a year ago, and got one back, informing him that part of Dempster Street is under the jurisdiction of the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways.
In 2017, the county placed Dempster Street between Route 83 and Wolf Road on a repair list, but the project was scratched in 2018. A county spokesperson said that was because "higher priorities" popped up. She said that stretch of Dempster Street would be resurfaced in 2019 or 2020.
"I wouldn't hold my breath until I see the road construction signs go up," Phil said.
