Thursday, August 26, 2010

TxDOT has a bunch of Idiots

So, suppose you have a major intersection of N-S road and E-W road that currently has two left turn lanes for each direction of the N-S road and traffic is picking up in the area such that it is decided to build an overpass for the E-W road.

ON WHAT PLANET does it make sense to "improve" the intersection by making the new interchange with only one left turn lane for the N-S road? For some reason they thought there was a need for an exit ramp flyover to get from the Eastbound to Southbound but not the reverse flow of Northbound to Westbound. Nope, that is relegated to a single turn lane at the traffic light intersection under the bridge.

Now instead of waiting through two cycles of the light to turn left during rush hour, it takes sometimes four or five and with the single lane approach to the intersection, once traffic in the left turn lane backs up to where lanes divide, NO ONE gets to approach the intersection any more. So not only is the left turn slowed but traffic wanting to go straight now has to wait for left turn traffic to clear before even getting to the actual intersection.

Now, while I feel this way and am only one person, I have had multiple other people make comments about it without my even asking. So, if non civil engineers can figure this out, why can't the collection of Bozo's at TxDOT who supposedly have a degree in this stuff figure it out?

This post has been sitting in the edit column for a few days. I e-mails the engineer listed on the TxDOT website as lead for this project asking him what the poop. After three business days, his time to respond is up. So, this post goes on as written.

UPDATE: Got a response from TxDOT. Including a map of the finished project. Talk about a cluster. The reason there is only one turn lane is their interim phase design did not allow room for another turn lane that wouldn't interfere with the left turn lane from the other direction. (BTW, that direction had two turn left turn lanes too!) When all is said and done, northbound traffic will pass through two traffic lights and turn right at the second intersection and make a loop around up onto the overpass. Also, westbound traffic that wants to go north or south will have to exit and go down to the same intersection I first described and stop at the light and turn left or right. THis should be loads of fun.

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