Many don’t realize that, along with warm, beachy days and graduation parties, there’s another kick-off that’s no less important in our lives. Yes, road construction has begun. By tacit agreement among government officials and paving companies, upwards of 60% of road surfaces virtually everywhere are now designated as “construction sites”. You’ll see those happy signs indicated that there is a flag person just around the next bend, holding a sign that either says “Slow” or “Stop”. Or in the case of one flag bearer I saw the other day, who took time out to scratch his nose and didn’t quite get his sign switched in time, we can meet up in the middle.
Unlike the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance” in all of its glory, we really don’t have a suitable anthem for road repairs, even though the subject comes up every year at this time. I’ve thought of a couple of possible titles – “Land of Orange Cones”, or “Hail to Thee, Flag Person.” Perhaps we could take a few liberties with the Dropkick Murphy’s “I’m Shipping Up to Boston in a Dump Truck.” Not quite the jaunty tune to fully celebrate this season of traffic joy, but it’s a start.
Many of you are probably wondering why this is the time of year when every road seems to be torn up and in some stage of being redone. As I wrote before, by way of making this column as informative as possible, Juno, for which the month of June was named, was the Roman Goddess of Road Construction and Telephone Poles/Electrical Work. Oh, yes. It is believed that she personally oversaw the resurfacing of the Appian Way, limiting chariots and hand carts to one lane. Today, there are two reasons, really. First, a steaming hot truckload of asphalt is at its fragrant best in hot weather. The folks that work with it want to share the pleasant aromas wafting across the landscape. In fact, the only job that I can think might be worse on a summer day would be a that of a roofer, but not having ever been a part of the profession, I’m merely speculating. The other reason that road construction begins now is that it will hold up all of the thousands of tourists flocking to our lakes, beaches, and resorts, and can extend into July and August as needed. By September, those pesky school buses will be back on the road and holding up the carefully choreographed flow of dump trucks. As I was heading south on route 93, crews were putting out the dreaded orange cones in the northbound lanes. Traffic was at a standstill straddling two states. I decided to come home on back roads, only to find that a couple of those too were being blocked and torn up.
I wrote some time ago, and in the interest of reader information, here is something that you may or may not find relevant. There are several distinct categories of road construction. There is the “resurfacing”. That usually means that they’re just laying down a new coat of asphalt on the road’s surface. What that involves, and I’m not a professional – just working from my own haphazard observations, is that they’ll fill the major holes, and then run something like a large farm harrow over the road. That will cut grooves in the pavement, so that presumably the new layer of pavement will stick better. Either that, or it just makes it really unpleasant for us to drive over before the road is done, and thus building our appreciation for the new pavement. To add to the excitement of the repaving, it’s done in non-connecting strips. They’ll pave, for example, a half mile of the northbound lane. Then, they’ll start on the opposite side and pave a half mile to a mile, going the other way. You always want to have a few miles of one lane pavement going in different directions. That’s important because then folks using that road will have no way to anticipate what and how much is being redone, nor will they know how long the total project is going to take. The key here is that, once all of the new pavement is down, it’s really important to keep one lane traffic in place while the road crews, working at glacial speed and typically a couple of guys with rakes, tidy up the guard rails and spread dirt on the shoulders of the road. They need a one or two lane “buffer” for safety reasons. That will be seeded, same two guys throwing handfuls of seed, followed by a layer of hay to prevent wash-out. Sometimes on backroads, the shoulders will wash away big chunks of the new pavement, which will require . . . . . . you guessed it, those wonderful orange signs that read, “Roadwork Ahead.” Right after that, you will see a sign with the outline of a flag person, and you can be sure that you won’t be getting to wherever you’re going.
Highways seem to be more fun for the engineers and the construction companies to repair or replace because they have more large toys with which to play. There are lots and lots of big pieces of equipment digging up dirt (in the industry, we call it “fill”) and trucking it to some other place, where it will wait to be trucked back to where it started. There are always fleets of dump trucks that say, “Construction Vehicle: Do Not Follow!” And yes, they’re driving down the highway like we have a choice. I’m tempted to guess where the highway is going to end up, and I’m wrong much of the time. Adding to the thrill of highway construction is that the routes are constantly changing. Where we were driving just the other day is now being torn up by a bulldozer. They always set up orange cones to “guide” us through the new lanes. Exits are blocked off, though, so you’ll have to go the next one and hope you can get back. That could be a television game show – “Figure Out Route 93”. If you end up in a ditch or down an embankment, you lose. It’s really fun to follow the new routes at night, because they are not particularly well lit, so you’re working only from your headlights and the car in front of you, hoping their night eyesight is better than mine. Bridge repairs are something pretty special. The typical method is to build a new bridge next to the old one. That’s so you can use the new, temporary bridge while the old one is being rebuilt. That means that the road will suddenly swerve to get you onto the part-timer. Or, sometimes the temp bridge goes both ways, confusing everyone. Once the new one is done, we’re pretty much back where we started, only surprisingly much bigger. Once near us in the next town is gigantic, and flows over a stream across which I could probably wade with my pants rolled up.
The very best elements of road construction in June are the local projects – you know, the ones where they’re replacing a septic line or water main. Step one is to block off the whole street. Step two is to put up the “detour” signs. These are in bright colors with an arrow pointing somewhere. The town road department didn’t really think through the entire route of the detour, so it’s enough merely to send you off into an unknown part of town, and it’s particularly effective if they can send us into a maze of residential streets. Someone in the planning department assumes we know the way, because they do. Or, like an explorer looking for the Northwest Passage, we’ll find our way back to where we were going.
All in all, this is a time of delayed and bumpy travel. If you have some place to be, make sure you leave lots of extra time. One helpful hint: our dear friend, Lady Peacock, keeps what she calls “emergency snacks” in the back seat. In the unhappy event that she’s stalled in a construction zone, along with a few droplets of left-over Starbucks, so the chances of starvation or dehydration are greatly reduced.
Not only are the roads congested and the traveler is likely to see long lines of brake lights, it’s also a time to test our suspension systems and wheel alignments. If you just had that done, as I did about a month or so ago, it was money down the toilet. But we all will persevere. You might try smiling and waving pleasantly to the flag people – it will totally surprise them.
Happy motoring, everyone, and enjoy a patient, stress-free start to the vacation season.
I'm Thinking...No! 