Jake Severns

Over the last year, it seems that a person can’t drive completely through any of our local cities without being inconvenienced by some kind of road construction. So many of these projects have popped up that it is almost impossible to travel from one city to another without a major delay or detour.

It isn’t just by chance that so much road construction is popping up at one time. Obviously our state, cities and counties didn’t suddenly stumble upon hundreds of millions of dollars for these projects. If you look along the roadside while driving through these projects and you will likely see a sign saying “Project Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” Yep, the one that cost us $700 billion.

I’ll be the first to admit that California’s roads need help. Nearly every road condition ranking puts California among in the worst five of all the states in the U.S. But isn’t there a better way to spend the money ”” that our nation didn’t have ”” than on a road that generates zero revenue once it is finished?

Currently the most irritating thing about all the construction is the lack of consideration for commuters in local cities.

Take my hometown of Sanger, for example. The construction of Freeway 180 has created a nightmare for commuters trying to enter the city for more than four months. Since July 5, every road leading directly to the city has been blocked. You have to drive well beyond either end of Sanger just to drive back around to the city. And, with only two main routes into the city, traffic is already horrendous.

I understand that road work is going to block other roads temporarily, but when virtually every route into a city is blocked there needs to be much more foresight in the construction timeline. They should have finished everything up to Academy, a main route into Sanger, and worked on from there rather than having every road closed for more than two months now. I’m sick of adding 12 miles onto my daily commute just to get home, and I’m sure others are as well.

Sanger is just one example. If anyone commutes to Visalia specifically from anywhere east of Clovis, then they know this is a cluster also.

There is road construction on every conceivable route that I’m aware of. Road 80 has construction in two places: a large detour in Dinuba, and it’s narrowed to one lane in Goshen, which was a 30-minute wait before I had my chance to pass through. Not to mention I had no idea I would end up in a mile-long traffic jam because signs weren’t placed far enough ahead to warn drivers of their impending doom.

Trying another route didn’t help much. Highway 99, construction between Kingsburg and Traver. Road 124, construction at Road 328.

I’m out of ideas and hair to pull out. Yes cities, counties and states received a lot of money from the piggy bank, aka the federal government, but how about some planning? Finish one intersection, leave one route to adjacent towns. Some of us actually need to get to a destination in a reasonable amount of time.