Traffic

There has been road construction going on near my home for way over a year now. The first contractor was 6 months past the due date when the city council finally got around to firing them in May. I have been calling my city councilman, the public works director, and the city construction manager for months now. It took them months to get another contractor on the job. When they started in September, I thought they might actually get busy and beat their mid-November due date. Nope. They started fast and furious then left it sitting for a month.

Now, this morning, they are apparently rushing to get it finished. Idiots must run that company. Apparently they have no clue that thousands of people live north of Herndon, and surprise, actually have to cross Herndon to do things such as go to work and school! This morning, in an effort to avoid Herndon between West and Marks (which was well publicized would be down to one lane each direction), I drove across Alluvial and south on West, intending to cross Herndon and take my son to school. Much to my surprise, the entire intersection was coned off, and you could only make a right turn, the opposite direction I actually needed to be going! Fine, I thought. I'll just make a left turn at Van Ness. Of course, the traffic was down to one lane, so it took me a while to get there.

When I did make it, guess what? No left turns at Van Ness! In fact, no crossing Herndon there either. (I couldn't have made a right, and then crossed. It was coned off as well.) I got to Marks and the situation was the same. Ok, that was as much of this stupidity that I could take. I made an illegal left hand turn through 2 sets of orange construction cones.

THEN, I have to fight all the traffic down Marks and across Bullard. To get home, I used Fruit, and then had to meander through residential neighborhoods to get to Alluvial and get home. WHAT A FRICKING MESS!

On the way to class this afternoon, the city had a "No through traffic" sign posted at Alluvial and West. How the heck did they expect me to be able to get to the other side of Herndon? Give me a break! I called the city's public works department on my break at school to complain. I don't understand how they can shut down a major street and not provide a clear detour or details about how they are doing it.

My only consolation is that apparently, this whole fiasco is supposed to be done on Thursday. After about 18 months of dealing with torn up streets, orange cones and unfinished medians, I don't know if I believe it. I have no idea how I'm supposed to get my son to school tomorrow, so I guess I'll drive through that residential neighborhood again, thinking it is most likely to not be shut down.

What a pain!