Bethany's Evolution

This is a very local post about the changes to the main road that runs through our area. When we moved here in 1984 it was called 158th Ave. and looked like this [looking south]:

1984:

Same vantage point in 2011:

A few hundred feet north on the road was this lovely farm. The only thing left of the farm now is the big old country house which is hidden in the trees on the left. The rest of the farm was subdivided over 25 years ago.

1984:

So by about mid-90s the whole length of 158th had been built out, and the name of the road was changed to Bethany Blvd., signifying that the road no longer dead-ended near our house, but continued north to an historic area called Bethany (settled pre-1870), which was being expanded to accommodate thousands of new residents.

So it came to look like this by 2011:

The problem though, is this section of Bethany Blvd. is extremely substandard. It was built around 1920 as a dirt/gravel road, then pavement was thrown on in the early 80s without any improvement. Narrow and lined with ditches, it has inconvenient and dangerous hills and curves and very short sight-distances. And no sidewalks on many stretches. I've written about this before here, here, and here and my participation on a citizens' committee to make sure the improvements the county wants to make are appropriate for the neighborhood.

The 2-year construction of a brand new Bethany Blvd. began 4 weeks ago. Utilities were moved during the past 2 weeks, street trees are partly removed and continue to be cut. And last week fences were taken out and the new road cuts are now being made.

Now we see these signs everywhere:

 

And machinery:

Sorry about the darkness. The sun is so low in the sky this time of year and it begins setting about 3:00 in the afternoon.

Next November (blog-post month)  I'll have some pretty nice pictures to show of our road. So looking forward to improvements.