Yeah, I know it’s been done before…:rolleyes:
There’s been a new development in my neck of the woods.
First, a little background. For some reason (which I do not know, but I’m sure there is an explantion rooted in the region’s history and probably involving at least a dollop of bigotry) There are very few roads that travel the full length of Lake County, Indiana from north to south. Lots going east to west, not so many north-south. There is, in particular, this long (almost county-wide) strip of rail lines and industrial crap that has very few crossings.
Now, I live south of this strip. My commuter train lies north of it. So I can either cross the No Man’s Land via Cline Avenue, Kennedy Avenue, or Indianapolis Avenue, a.k.a. Route 41. There’s another road further west, Columbia Avenue, which is really far out of my way but a last-ditch alternative.
Here’s the real deal: They were doing bridge work and repaving and heavy duty repairs on Columbia, which has been completely shut down off and on for the past year, and even at best is just one very slow lane of traffic each way. This means a LOT of people who were using Columbia started using 41.
They’ve been doing work on Cline Avenue for over five years now, with similar problems to Columbia (although not shut down completely, but extensive re-routing of traffic and slowdowns). So a LOT of people who used to use Cline use 41.
This has, of course, increased the wear and tear on 41, including the Nine Span Bridge over the Endless Railyard. This bridge has had some deteroriation, but there’s no money to fix it - they’re spending it on Columbia and Cline, apparently. Well, a couple years ago they were going to fix it, but another bridge further south on 41 started to buckle and collapse so they used the money to place that bridge. The Nine Span used to be two lanes each direction, but when the truck traffic over it increased and chunks started falling off it they did some emergency patching, then blocked off one lane in each direction
(Yeah, that made me feel real good about driving on it.)
So basically, you do not have a fully-functional bridge over the Endless Railyard and Industrial Eyesore (ERIE) across almost the entire county.
Well, early this month, a steel-hauling truck his a major support truss on the Nine Span Bridge. The bridge is still standing, but it is no longer usable. At all. This has made life a living hell on wheels for the ten thousand or so people who, every day, have to move from south of the ERIE where they live to north of the ERIE to where their jobs (mostly steel and chemical industries) or transporation to jobs (the commuter rail into Chicago) are located.
The one, fully open road left is Kennedy Avenue. Now, a lot of folks used to ignore Kennedy - hell, most of 'em weren’t even aware it goes throught ERIE in the one ground-level gap in the ERIE west of Cline. The access road to Kennedy is a rutted, tore up 2 lane road (if you’re generous - parts of the edges really are rotted off) accessed through a bizarre hairpin turn off a bridge going over a railroad spur, through to an intersection with poor visibility and no requirement for the traffic on Kennedy to stop and let you in. It’s confusing as all hell the first time you go through.
Well, a whole lot of newbies have been learning the ropes lately. Kennedy Avenue - the “backdoor” bolthole some of us have been using to avoid traffic jams has been discovered. And boy, howdy! Mile-long back ups and chaos. Almost as much fun as Yuppies arguing with sheriff deputies about how they have to use the Nine Span, never mind that sag in the middle. Traffic backs up all the way into the commuter train parking lot. What a fucking mess, even on a good day.
Well, last Tuesday, some jackass either got stupid or impatient or both and pulled out into traffic. The four lanes on Kennedy were, apparently, full. There were at least five cars involved in the pile up (that’s what I counted between the cop cars and ambulances, there may have been more) Apparently, those drivers not serious injured got out of their now-mangled vehicles and proceeded to Spontaneous Amateur Boxing Night. That was the worst event at that intersection this week, but every night has held that potential, with irritable folks honking and gesturing at each other and otherwise being real pissers.
Last night… I got off work a half an hour early (the boss said it was a reward for work well done, go catch the earlier train). I was hoping I might avoid the thick of rush hour.
After negotiating the Kennedy Avenue intersection - usually the most difficult part of my commute - I thought I was home free and about 10 minutes away from home.
Of course not.
I hit heavy traffic just south of Hessville. HEAVY traffic. And I started noticing an usually large number of both trucks and clueless idjits with out-of-state license plates. Oh…shit…
The radio mentioned a 14 mile back up on the Borman Expressway and multiple accidents on the Tollway. Those are two major freeways that parallel each other. So, basically, you had nothing moving on either freeway, and folks moving from one freeway to the other hoping to find better conditions (but not), and lots of folks who aren’t from around here wandering around lost in Highland, Indiana through two-lane small town streets and subdivisions.
I swear, every other intersection had a multi-car accident scene.
It took me longer to go the 10 miles between train and home than it did to travel from the Chicago Loop to the East Chicago train station. I was screaming in frustration. The way communities are sliced up by the freeways there were NO alternatives to where I was sitting. Go to Cline? No access to that road east of that point. Go to 41? Major construction south of that point to go through. The traffic is being crowded onto fewer and fewer road and we haven’t even gotten to the Winter Road Mess.
I just wish people would calm down and use a little more patience. There’d be less broken glass in the road and we’d all get home a little faster. I am so fucking sick of this commute. NOT the train commute - the goddamned car commute.
The up side - I’m on vacation to December 1. I don’t have to do this drive for awhile.
Or monster truck…