This Post Will Make Absolutely No Sense To People Who Don't Live in the Twin Cities

Reason #342 Why It's Good Not to Have a Car At Times.

The Crosstown, or as it's regularly denoted on the map State Highway 62, is a mess. Has been for years. It is the most illogically constructed bit of freeway in a town where logical construction of freeways is not a highly valued concept. Now, to be fair, when they originally constructed the Crosstown, they got the location just right, which is why it's one of the most highly utilized freeways in town. It shoots straight across from the southwest suburb of Eden Prairie, all the way over to el aeroporto, on the far fringes of east Bloomington. It runs right through highly populated areas and, theoretically speaking, it can (and does) save you boatloads of time on the road, simply because you're not going out of your way just to travel at freeway speeds. It also hooks up with just about all of the major north-south highways, so it's very convenient. The problem is that they goofed---and goofed badly---when they put it together.

Now, I can understand where they thought three lanes would be sufficient for the level of traffic at the time of building. But, the problem is, if you're on the road during rush hour, the thing pretty much slows to a crawl for six hours of a twenty-four hour day, and that's because some genius decided to merge it with 35W north for about a mile, and when it merges, it narrows down to one lane. If Lileks had shot that video at rush hour---which he obviously did not---it would have run for over an hour. Now, this is if you're going west to east; if you're going the opposite direction, you merge with 35W south, and then have to move over one to two lanes, depending on the traffic and where you want to get off, instantaneously to continue traveling west on 62. And when I mean instantaneously, I'm not exaggerating. The split between 62 and 35W south happens in, oh, about a quarter of a mile and you've got to beat cheeks to make it all happen or you're on your way to Albert Lea. It's a nerve wracking experience, because, for some strange reason, no one barreling down the 35W south pike is going to move an inch to let you in. This interchange is, by far, my least favorite in the Twin Cities---and there are lots of other horrendous interchanges in this town. It makes me break into a cold sweat every time I have to drive it, and I am glad, to a certain extent, that they're actually doing something about it---even though it seems as if most of the MNDOT budget has been shifted to fixing the 35W bridge in downtown.

But am I ever happy I don't have to drive it regularly during the construction period! Woohoo! No car=no traveling on in-progress freeways! Yippeee! I knew they'd started work on it, but I'm somewhat surprised at the amount of progress they've achieved, particularly with the bridge collapse. (No car also means not seeing how far they've come with things.) At one point in time, the legislature had the brilliant idea of asking contractors to bid for the job of putting the fixes in place, but since there wasn't any funding for the project, they asked the contractors to foot the bill entirely until they could finally find the money to pay for it. Not surprisingly, no one applied for the job. People want to get paid, and they don't want to have to shell out millions of dollars for supplies and labor, with the hope that the stupid, dysfunctional state government would, at some undetermined point in the future, finally get around to funding the damn job. Apparently, however, they found some coin and work has commenced. This thing is going to be a mess for years to come, and for the time being, I'm ever so happy I don't have to travel through it.

Posted by Kathy at January 9, 2008 11:05 AM | TrackBack