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[hipshot]

Three cheers to the Texas Department of Transportation for their brilliantly conceived SH242 flyover on IH-45.  Not to be deterred by previously made plans for the Lone Star Rally, they went ahead and closed the IH-45 mainlanes on the LSR weekend, so thousands of people could enjoy the progress on their trips home.  I made it from FM2920 to the Sam's Club in Shenandoah in only an hour and a half.  I had one HD overheat and die in front of me in the stop and no-go traffic, and saw a bunch more cars and motorcycles overheated and stranded.  But hey, that's progress....... 

But it will all be worth it when they finish, and we finally get the long backups every day on the freeway because of a ramp that takes all of the traffic to a light..........  Just like the Woodlands Parkway Flyover, where the Oak Ridge North PD works multiple collisions every day due to a plethora of maturity-challenged adults swerving in and out of the mile or longer backups, and running up to the ramp and trying to force their way into the line from a moving lane of freeway traffic.

Aren't we fortunate to have such a forward-looking state agency working for us?

[TwoThumbs]

I got caught in this as well on Saturday coming back.  I finally took the Tamina exit and went on Lake Woodlands Pkwy to 2598, then 1488 to 45.  Absolutely ridiculous.

[Luckys Lover]

Yeah, 15 years ago, TXDOT Started working on the Dixie Farm Road overpass. YAY!!!! 3 lanes of I-45 southbound meet up with 2 lanes of Beltway 8 just north of this overpass.

Then, you get the WTF look when you realize they are going to WIDEN the Dixie Farm Road overpass to 4 lanes!!! 

But lo and behold, they finally get their act somewhat together and tear down the overpass to put in a wider overpass for I-45. Finally, 15 years too late.



And on highway 288 a few years ago, TXDOT closed down the freeway to install an overpass for County Road 101 and two overpasses for the county roads further south. Both of the new overpasses have room for three lanes. But the bridges over the irrigation canal and Mustang Bayou that were bypassed during the construction were left with just 2 lanes. So the idiots will have to shut down 288 here again to widen the bridges.

duh!

[hipshot]

Yeah, Oak Ridge North still has one of those outdated cloverleaf exchanges at Woodlands Parkway / Robinson Road and IH-45.  Several years ago  they rearranged the service road under the exchange, and created a mandatory turn lane.  The sign warning of the mandatory turn was close enough to the turn that we saw a significant increase in the number of collisions, because people were trying to change lanes at the last minute in heavy traffic.  We kept trying to argue with TXDOT that signage was needed further from the intersection.  They kept informing us that they weren't going to add any signs because they had already put up all the signs "the book" required.  

Just saving the taxpayers some money............

[hipshot]

At Woodson Rd. and IH-45 there is a stop sign that is frequently knocked over by long (tractor-semitrailer) rigs turning onto the service road.  Sometimes as often as weekly.  This has been going on for years.  But rather than move the base out of the way a foot or two to the right rear, TXDOT keeps coming out and replacing the sign in the original location, so that the semitailers continue to either run over it or barely miss it.

Geniuses.............

[hipshot]

Tonight, with all of the rain, the service roads -- both north and southbound -- on IH-45 south of SH 242 are under water.  Happens every time we get a good rain, and it causes huge traffic backups.  This is a relatively (a couple of years) new roadway that has flooded like this since it was originally constructed, but it has apparently never occurred to TXDOT to correct the lack of drainage there.  And the way they are handling the Grand Parkway / Hwy 59 interchange is a real joke.  Someone with a brain would have built the service road first, and put the traffic off on it during the closures.  But no, true to form they put the warning signs after the last exit, and they divert the freeway traffic onto a tight, rough temporary road where the service road is going to be.  Absolutely brilliant.......

[xcaliber]

Called job security, Jim, I think the third generation of construction workers are working on the Gulf Frwy.

[Chad]

This is why I live in the country,   

[Swampfox]

If I'm elect; and Jim; If you feel like it and you want to be, etc. : I will call on you to be our TOP SAFTY OFFICER 
and also God Bless you God Speed my old VTX man.

[hobo]

You'll be happy to know that the genius of TXDOT extends as far north as Iowa. where while escorting windmill blades to Texas, it took the Iowa DOT, along with the Nebraska DOT, ten days to decide we needed to "take a right". A day later Kansas got involved and we spent 14 days waiting to "come on through". Then there was Oklahoma...

I guess it's everywhere