He DID Build that Road!

Remember President Obama's you didn't build that attack on entrepreneurs, or Elizabeth Warren's assertion that businesses moved their goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for? A grandfather in Somerset, England has news for both of them.

A grandfather sick of roadworks near his home defied his council and built his own toll road allowing people to circumvent the disrupted section.

Opened on Friday, it’s the first private toll road built since cars became a familiar sight on British roads 100 years ago. Motorists pay £2 to travel each way and bypass the 14 miles diversion.

Mike Watts, 62, hired a crew of workmen and ploughed £150,000 of his own cash [about $253,000 US] into building a 365m long bypass road [less than one-quarter of a mile] in a field next to the closed A431. He reckons it will cost another £150,000 in upkeep costs and to pay for two 24 hour a day toll booth operators.

The A431 between Bristol and Bath was closed in February after a landslip caused huge cracks to appear in the road.

Quickly businesses in the area began to suffer - including the cafe and party supplies shop Mike runs with wife Wendy Rice, 52, in Bath.

"It used to just be a very quick drive for us to Bath, but we were having to do a 14 mile detour which was taking up to an hour down tiny lanes just not designed to take the traffic," Mike said.

Father of four Mike asked his friend John Dinham if he would mind renting him the field until Christmas and hired three workmen to help build the road in just 10 days.