The Ulah Road :

 

Roads in and around Ulah were graded dirt. In spring, the roads became quagmires as horse-drawn wagons and buggies attempted to go from one place to another. Rueben Nelson described the plank roads, in his reminisces printed in the Galvaland Magazine June 1978. He rode with Leslie and Ione Johnson, who drove a 1914 or 1915 Model T Ford touring car to Cambridge High School in 1926-27 and 1927-28. Rueben described the mud holes that were often encountered. In the last two years of high school, he drove a 1927 Model T roadster to school, with Vinton Johnston and Kenneth Wongstrom as riders. Paving of the Ulah road began about that time, and was completed in the early 1930’s. A bridge was constructed over the Edwards River , and the single-lane road connected Ulah to the highway.

 

In April 1999, letters were written to State Senator Carl Hawkinson and State Representative Donald Moffitt by Cambridge resident Wayne Wiley, requesting that the Ulah road, which was under the jurisdiction of the state and in deplorable condition, be repaired or turned over to the county or township for maintenance. Senator Hawkinson contacted Mr. William Ost, District Engineer, IL Dept. of Transportation, Dixon , IL . Mr. Ost contacted Mr. Wiley and told him that the bridge over the Edwards River was scheduled to be repaired in 2000, and after the bridge was repaired and painted, he would schedule the restructuring of the road. The repair and painting of the bridge was completed in 2001, and the Ulah road was restructured to two lanes and resurfaced during the summer of 2002. The work was completed in the fall of 2002.

Contributed by Bonnie Wiley

 

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