You thought this post would be about the hot TX summers, admit it! Well sorry to disappoint you, it's actually not- although it is a rant. To explain the seasonal reference: When I was a college student living in Utah, I was riding the bus one day to my dental appointment and overheard a conversation in which someone said, "There are 2 seasons to Utah: Winter, and Construction." (Mind you, this was in the mid-90s) If that is the case, then TX has one season: construction, construction, construction.
I realize that I am extremely whiny about this, and should be more patient with my town's growing pains. The city has grown by about 20-30% just in the 4 years since we've moved here, and it grew much more rapidly the ten years before that. Naturally, there are many adaptations that need to be made because of traffic patterns and residential and commercial changes. Most of it has not been too awful, because I prefer taking the back roads anyway. For that reason, I didn't even know the main road was finished until a few weeks after the fact. They did a great job and didn't take nearly as long as they could have. The next town spent a year and a half on one lousy intersection, just to add a silly turning lane and let me tell you, they chose to continue the traffic problems. So at least my town's better in that regard.
But the other main drag, a street which affects me more, they don't seem to be doing anything on! Which wouldn't be that big of a deal, except that they tore up the limited road that we had, reducing the already stifled amount of traffic that can pass on this highway. I know it's cheaper and more efficient, not to mention probably a lot more fun, to rip up road even if there are no plans to get to that road for awhile. But can there be some sort of deadline on when it gets done following the demolition?
My other beef is that the Construction Gnomes are busy trying to make life miserable for as many people as possible. You know what I'm talking about: they finish the road in spots, but does anyone get to drive on it? Of course not! They also pull little hilarious pranks like move a bunch of cones in an odd formation just so they can watch cars try to negotiate the new dimensions. Naturally, there are no needs for such cone manipulation. I think I brought on the Wrath of the Construction Gods one day because someone moved the cones and I had the guts to drive on the new road. The next day, they were back up in a swirly design, lest I lose my head and take that initiative again.
But that's all I can complain about for awhile, since this industry might be the livelihood of my family for the coming days...
3 comments:
I's true the season of construction has been going on long enough around here. It seems every major road we go on is torn up. And if you were talking about the Walmart area with the year and a half to make a turn lane and they still have cones up! Why didn't they just make that whole section 2 lanes? Drives me crazy every time I'm up there.
My favorite is how they put up the cones and block off lanes, and then you drive, sometimes for miles, past closed, not-ripped-up lanes, before you see any signs of construction. I find this happening on freeways in Utah, mainly. I've never been to Texas.
I totally agree with you about things taking forever sometimes. In Coppell a company actually got the city to agree to a plan where they'd work on a road just 2 days a week. It took YEARS for that road to get completely finished. In Kansas City they just put a giant metal slab on top of potholes and call it a day.
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