Thursday, October 26, 2006

M-14...Give me a break!!!

The construction on M-14 has been going on for upwards of 7 months now. The impact of this construction is pretty significant for me, as it is the main route to and from work for me 5 days / week. There are no better routes to take during this construction phase, partially because of parallel construction being run on other roads/streets. This construction costs me generally 15 minutes on the drive in the morning, and 15-30 minutes in the afternoon. It forces me to leave work early 2 days a week to pick up Abby by the required time.

During that time, I have run through several phases of emotion. The first phase was anger in the beginning at the prospects of the construction taking 8 months to complete. Then I went through about a month long stage where I felt like I was losing my mind dealing with it. This was partially fueled by the road being completely closed twice with me on it, one of those times culminating in me sitting in the same spot for an hour. Around July-August, I came to terms with it, and just dealt with it. This co-incided with the East bound lanes being completed, and the West bound lanes being worked on. Finally, about 3 weeks ago, traffic was routed back onto the proper side of the road, which signaled (I thought) an early end to the construction. But now new barriers are being installed, and bridge work is occurring. Additionally, the Shelden Road exit ramps have been completely torn up a week or two ago, and it appears that the road won’t officially be opened up until this is complete.

Amazingly, this is causing traffic to be worse in both directions. I thought we were at the end of this!!! Please MDOT, open up 2 lanes of traffic immediately. This will significantly ease the traffic burden for commuters in these directions. It might be the only way I maintain whatever sanity I have left!

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