Road Construction: Warning, RANTING

[MistaFreeze]

Okay I don't post much but I'm gonna type this on here. Had a crappy work day. Please forgive me.

Seriously people, how the F*** can you drive in construction all the time? How the F*** is it acceptable to change peoples way of getting from A to B for MONTH's at time when it's a major highway and your commute is an hour longer drive than what used to be only a half hour? The commute goes from a half an hour, to an hour and a half. ONE WAY! That means coming back, yep another hour and a half. That's 3 F******** hours of driving to get to an already 8 hour work day.

I understand stuff happens and roads need to be fixed, but I pass by all these lanes that these construction workers aren't doing jack shit to which could be opened for people to drive on. There's also the detours. Who the hell puts up the detour signs in Minnesota? I want that job. Maybe the signs would actually put you on the correct route or the drivers could see the detour sign before the exit. I've been on detours that blatantly stop having detour signs for miles at a time and you don't even know what the hell's going on. Even better, detours that aren't even putting you back on the original route after you've been driving where the signs pointed at for miles.

Also, I want a job where I just sit on my ass staring at a train of cars that you can't even see the end to. That seems like an awesome job. It probably makes twice what I'm making and the work is non existent. I'm talking about the asshole I see every morning sitting in his vehicle blocking off the traffic where the construction beings. The guy is drinking coffee and looking at his laptop screen. Really? Again, I understand maybe somebody has to do this job but just take a shit and rub in it all over my face why don't you.

 

[Rakehellion]

That's 3 F******** hours of driving to get to an already 8 hour work day.

Maybe you should have gotten a job the construction business.

 

[bruceb]

Like it or not, most of the roadways here in the US are well over 60 years old. And if they are in areas with a lot of road salt (NY, NJ, PA, CT and the New England States) those roads need more work than others. They either get fixed or you have monster size potholes eating up rims, tires, suspension. Or worse, something like a bridge collapses. So just put up with it. It is for your safety, like it or not.

 

[SearchMaster]

Quality rant bro.

 

[WiseUp216]

 

[DaTT]

.

I understand stuff happens and roads need to be fixed, but I pass by all these lanes that these construction workers aren't doing jack shit to which could be opened for people to drive on.

You must be young and ignorant to safety....I work on roads all the time and absolutely WISH I could have a lane to myself. Drivers are assholes and people are stupid. I have had people "jokingly" swerve in my direction while working on a road.

 

[God Mode]

It seems the workers rip up perfectly fine streets all the time for no reason. I've heard the laying cables excuse but I don't see them laying cables nor is it necessary to rip up the entire road for such.

 

[ch33zw1z]

seek alternate routes. the people out there are working they're job just like you. they don't call teh shots...take it up with the local officials. Interstates? yea, good luck with taking that up with anyone lol...

 

[EagleKeeper]

How about ranting AFTER you learn about road construction and the rules/guidelines that have to be followed.

When was the last time you looked at an alternate route or tried to not drive in rush hour.

 

[sourn]

Like it or not, most of the roadways here in the US are well over 60 years old. And if they are in areas with a lot of road salt (NY, NJ, PA, CT and the New England States) those roads need more work than others. They either get fixed or you have monster size potholes eating up rims, tires, suspension. Or worse, something like a bridge collapses. So just put up with it. It is for your safety, like it or not.

I'm all for that, but I do understand were the OP is coming from. They always seem to fix the good roads that may have one bump here or there (not even talking adding more lanes that's understandable to). Instead of the really crappy roads were potholes are already deep and if you're not careful well screw up you car.

 

[UnklSnappy]

Suck it up buttercup.

 

[MarkXIX]

I agree on virtually every aspect of your rant. There's nothing more frustrating to me than getting into a traffic jam that goes for miles in the middle of the day and at the end seeing absolutely NOTHING being done, no workers, no trucks, etc., just miles of cones.

However, the vast majority of the time the traffic sucks in those situations because of retarded drivers. I can't wait for cars that drive themselves and remove the idiots we're surrounded with from the driving decision making process.

 

[lxskllr]

It seems the workers rip up perfectly fine streets all the time for no reason. I've heard the laying cables excuse but I don't see them laying cables nor is it necessary to rip up the entire road for such.

I live in a fairly well to do part of the state, and there's an active road near me that gets way more attention than it deserves. Not full depth construction, but it gets resurfaced fairly often, and it isn't even that bad. I suspect it's in the path of someone "important", and they're pulling strings to make it better for them. There's other roads that need much more attention, but they don't get it.

 

[mmntech]

Like it or not, most of the roadways here in the US are well over 60 years old. And if they are in areas with a lot of road salt (NY, NJ, PA, CT and the New England States) those roads need more work than others. They either get fixed or you have monster size potholes eating up rims, tires, suspension. Or worse, something like a bridge collapses. So just put up with it. It is for your safety, like it or not.

The big problem is that governments have been neglecting infrastructure for decades. It's gotten to the point that roads are unsafe or woefully inadequate for modern traffic volumes.

Poor planning with little foresight is also a major problem. Here in Toronto, we have some major bottlenecks. The most notorious for those that know the area is the stretch of the 401 between the 427 and 400. There's collector lanes for half this segment and then they just inexplicably stop. So you have traffic feeding form a major north-south route directly into the express lanes. So it grinds to a halt. The Gardiner Expressway that feeds into downtown Toronto is also another notorious route due to safety concerns. Concrete chunks keep falling off the raised portion. There are actually people that want the highway completely removed with no replacement, in all seriousness, which would create a traffic nightmare. Proving my theory that the downtown condo weenies are retarded.

The provincial and local governments received a lot of money from the feds through the Economic Action Plan. A job creation scheme to help reduce unemployment during the recession. Construction has gone into overtime as a result. So there's roadwork literally everywhere you go. Though once that money dries up, they'll go back to neglecting it. Repairing roads isn't sexy. Unfortunately neglect doesn't save any money in the long run. Just ends up costing more.

There are also major issues with how construction is handled. One of the biggest problems is lack of quality construction companies. The bidding system works purely on who can do the job the cheapest. In a classic case of getting what you pay for, construction work tends to go far beyond schedule. Companies bid too much work and stretch themselves thin. Quality and speed suffer. I've been watching this one company widen a 3km stretch of road to four lanes. What should have been a one year job if that (according to my dad who's an civil engineer and owned his own construction business) is now entering its third year. I saw them out there grinding asphalt they had just laid down a couple weeks ago. They had used the wrong material and had to redo it. The problem with these guys is you have to light a fire under their asses or the project won't get done on time. Yet they rarely get fined for going over schedule.

Just a lot of shoddy, shoddy work being done these days. A lot of yahoos get into the construction business not really knowing what they're doing. I've long believed that the bidding system should be overhauled to take a company's record of quality and speed into account. As a taxpayer, I don't mind paying a little extra to ensure these jobs are being done properly. It ends up saving me more in the long run as you don't have to go back and fix bad work, or cost productivity through long delays.

 

[Murloc]

maybe it has to do with ownership, like if they're municipal or state roads.

Anyway here the roads get resurfaced mostly at night and they're fast enough at it. The problem is that with the kind of traffic we get it happens fairly often.

In exchange for the hassle, the roads are perfect without potholes (except for secondary roads, the municipalities sometimes try to spare too much money).
In Italy there isn't as much maintenance and the roads are full of holes and irregularities.

 

[Zodiark1593]

in my case, I've got no choice than to drive through an ill-thought construction site. The road was in ok shape before, but they're replacing perfectly functional lights and adding friggin road dividers at the turn lane that serve no purpose but to impede the mass of traffic trying to make the turn, and since the turn lane is just a single lane, traffic often gets backed up a long way when the lane overflows.

Instead of spending taxpayer dollars adding dividers, could they not fix the severe potholes on some other nearby roads, but I guess we can't expect anything logical from California of all places.

 

[child of wonder]

Let me guess, you're affected by the I-35 resurfacing from the split to Lakeville?

Us being SW of the Cities, not only is that an obstacle for us but the work being done on 169 is also a major pain in the ass.

I feel your pain, OP.

 

[MedicBob]

8/10 on rant.

I also live in an area that has two seasons, winter and construction. You learn to deal with it or bypass it.

 

[olds]

in my case, I've got no choice than to drive through an ill-thought construction site. The road was in ok shape before, but they're replacing perfectly functional lights and adding friggin road dividers at the turn lane that serve no purpose but to impede the mass of traffic trying to make the turn, and since the turn lane is just a single lane, traffic often gets backed up a long way when the lane overflows.

Instead of spending taxpayer dollars adding dividers, could they not fix the severe potholes on some other nearby roads, but I guess we can't expect anything logical from California of all places.

Since 1924, 180 California Department of Transportation employees have been killed on the job.
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/paffairs/about/safety.htm

How many people have been killed on the job in your industry?

http://quickmap.dot.ca.gov
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/maint/msrsubmit

 

[Via]

I personally couldn't agree more. I've been driving a lot most of my professional life, and it's never been as bad as it is now.

I don't care to count now many times the past year or two I've had my commute ground to a standstill for 20, 30, 40 minutes by lane reductions only to find that no one is working at all. I don't care what anybody says - it did NOT used to be like that.

Fuck that fucking shit.

 

[Imp]

The Gardiner Expressway that feeds into downtown Toronto is also another notorious route due to safety concerns. Concrete chunks keep falling off the raised portion. There are actually people that want the highway completely removed with no replacement, in all seriousness, which would create a traffic nightmare. Proving my theory that the downtown condo weenies are retarded.

There are also major issues with how construction is handled. One of the biggest problems is lack of quality construction companies. The bidding system works purely on who can do the job the cheapest. In a classic case of getting what you pay for, construction work tends to go far beyond schedule. Companies bid too much work and stretch themselves thin.

I'm one of those people who wants it gone. But I live downtown, not in a condo, and rarely venture out of the city, try not to drive (last time was a year ago), so don't give a shit about everyone else. It'd probably screw me over in some indirect way, but meh, no one wants to pay for it anyways.

As for bidding, yep, usually goes to the lowest bidder. Companies have sued in the past if they had the lowest bid and didn't win. It's the easiest and cleanest way to award a contract. Any other qualitative measure would be open to interpretation and more easily sue-able. If you break it down to something stupid like, he had the lowest single number we were looking for, hard to fight that. I'm not saying it's not stupid...

And ya, my idiot neighbor has been renovating his house for a year now. The construction company has 3 or 4 jobs in the neighborhood, and works a few days, a week, then disappears for months, comes back on weekends, rinse and repeat.

 

[Brian Stirling]

It's difficult to repair active roads without shutting it down completely so they wind up doing it piece-meal and that makes the work take a shitload longer. It would be better if they shut the road down and went 100% to repair it as fast as possible but in many places this isn't possible given the lack of sufficient alternatives.

The really sad thing is many roads are being worked on virtually 100% of the time so there is almost no time you can drive it without interruption.

What REALLY pisses me off is to see a really long stretch of interstate that's coned down to one lane but they are only working on a small section of it at any point in time. I think the contractors bilk these jobs and try to turn it into a full time job instead of putting the resources to complete the job more quickly. If they did there wouldn't be so many sections of road that's not being actively worked on.


Brian

 

[T9D]

California is the worst. They take 5 times longer to do anything and cost 10 times more. Damn unions. Literally it can be 10 freaking years of construction that should take two years. TEN YEARS!! It just becomes a permanent part of your life. And it's like impossible to fire some crappy union worker too.

 

[Imp]

It's difficult to repair active roads without shutting it down completely so they wind up doing it piece-meal and that makes the work take a shitload longer. It would be better if they shut the road down and went 100% to repair it as fast as possible but in many places this isn't possible given the lack of sufficient alternatives.

What REALLY pisses me off is to see a really long stretch of interstate that's coned down to one lane but they are only working on a small section of it at any point in time. I think the contractors bilk these jobs and try to turn it into a full time job instead of putting the resources to complete the job more quickly. If they did there wouldn't be so many sections of road that's not being actively worked on.

They do that for a "municipal highway" (Gardiner and Don Valley) in Torona once or twice a year on the weekend -- closing down the entire highway. It screws up traffic, but they almost always finish ahead of schedule and open early. Other highways through town, they're allowed to close 1 lane after both rush hours (i.e. night to morning), and maybe an extra lane during the night. Slows shit the hell down and they have to keep shifting traffic back and forth do maintain a lane or two open, further slowing shit down.

I've seen the cone a dozen kilometres down and work on a few hundred metres... holy shit. And this was during the day time and rush hour.

 

[Jeff7]

...
I understand stuff happens and roads need to be fixed, but I pass by all these lanes that these construction workers aren't doing jack shit to which could be opened for people to drive on.
...

Cool, you have workers in your construction zones?

I drive across PA at least once a year, about 240 miles on I-80. It seems like each construction project exhausts its budget once they put up 7 miles of traffic barrels to close a lane: There are lots of signs about construction, and a closed lane for several miles, but no workers anywhere to be seen.




(Though I will say, driving that kind of distance is fortunately a rarity for me, so I don't lose much time in total.)