Day 209: July 28, 2010

One Thousand Days of Detours

So the Ohio Department of Transportation is undertaking a major project to widen I-475 from roughly my neighborhood to the I-75 split.  Along the way they are eliminating one exit, completely re-doing another so it empties directly into Toledo Hospital, and closing overpasses and exits during construction. 

It is a THREE YEAR project. 

While most exits will only be closed for part of the time, the one on Monroe street apparently is out for the duration.  I'm used to seeing signs like this that say construction will last for 90 days, or 180 days, but 1,000 days really floored me.

This would be bad enough, but all summer long, not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR major roads surrounding my house (OK one is 5 miles away but on my route to work) have been under construction with periodic lane closures and detours.  It's been nearly impossible to get out of my neighborhood without encountering orange barrels.

All of this construction is needed, it's just incredibly inconvenient to have such a convergence of it in my end of town and for such duration.

I have no idea what the graffiti means nor do I know why ODOT uses stick on letters (or are they hand-drawn?) for signs that will be up for three years.  Nor do I know why they cannot manage to hang a sign that is not crooked.  Let's hope their road construction skills are slightly better.