Newly Placed Road Tar Leaves Car Tires Severely Damaged In Plainfield
PLAINFIELD (CBS) -- This story begins inside Bartel's Auto Clinic in Plainfield, which services about 500 cars a month. Sometimes, mechanics there see road tar accumulating on tires.
Then there was the car that was towed to Bartel's on Thursday. "I have seen a little bit of tar on the tires, but not that amount," said Stewart Strickland. "It the most tar I have ever seen, probably."
The sticky situation unfolded a few miles away, at the corner of Lockport Street and Meadow Lane, where a smooth coat of road surfacing was recently poured. It was here on a hot sunny June day, the car's driver became stuck in her tracks.
"To her discription, it was almost like being stuck in quicksand," said Strickland.
The driver wants to remain anonymous, but she did share a video of the intersection where it all began. There are traffic barrels at the road's side, but nothing blocking lanes or guiding vehicles around the newly laid surface. You can also see the marks where the car began sinking into the roadway
Strickland said two of the tires were severely damaged and needed to be replaced immediately. The driver says she tried to drive on, not realizing what was happening underneath. Then, when she came to a complete stop, "she couldn' t do anything else but sit there and wait for a tow."
A day later, it looks like that new surface has been patched, but the only satisfaction the owner's gotten so far, is a quick repair
"She was just happy we could help her so fast," Strickland said.
Plainfield Police said this was an Illinois Department of Transportation project. At the end of the day the motorist was in good humor, but she did have to pay for two new tires and a tow. We reached out to IDOT and a spokeswoman said there were flaggers at the site and that conditions were appropriate for the work. A private contractor is doing the project on the state's behalf. The $889,685 project will resurface Illinois 126 from the Kendall County line to Wallin Drive, just under two miles.
