The lower echelon (or, read between the lines...if they exist...)
Roadwork update!
The Keystone Kops are at it again. Marquees popped up last week stating "Echelon paving begins 7-21-20." In preparation for that, the construction workers marked the roadway as to where the regular lanes should be. As expected, this showed that the temporary lane markings were NOT put in the correct place. Again, in a place where there should be four lanes, only three were marked, and those were supposed to then go down to two lanes on the opposite side of an intersection. I'm surprised there haven't been any accidents around there. So, with the redone lane markings--which I got to see happen, care of a guy driving a truck and holding a special can of paint out the window to make lines on the roadway--it became painfully clear where cars were supposed to be lined up. I've ended up just following the fresh paint line rather than the thicker lane stripes since they're so awful right there. Meanwhile, around the same time appeared this odd, shiny, dark stripe of something sort of resembling tar down the middle of the road, basically in the area where the lanes would be divided. There were three stripes in most places, between the two lanes in each direction, then separating each direction. I was surprised they stayed so shiny for days.
Today was the start of echelon paving. I had to look that up, figuring it meant top-level or something. It actually means there's more than one paving truck working at once, so that when there's a paver in one lane, one comes right behind it in the other lane. I suppose it helps to move the process along faster as well as helps keep the lanes relatively level, I suppose? I didn't look that deeply into it. It was clear, heading into the construction zone, that this was going to be a mess. It looked like the northbound lanes were already worked on, and perhaps northbound traffic was supposed to share the southbound lanes, but I saw cars in the freshly-paved northbound lanes. Uh...what. It's like there's a dearth of orange traffic cones or something and the construction crew is unable to mark everything clearly. Farther down, yes, northbound and southbound traffic were supposed to be sharing the southbound lanes. I mean...I get that the drivers I'm around aren't the brightest candles on the birthday cake, but can you help them out a little? Granted, some people are beyond help; at a light toward the south end of construction, I watched as a lady made a left from a cross street into the construction zone. She'd been sitting there for a while, so it's not like she'd just arrived at the intersection, and had she bothered to pay attention she'd have noticed, oh, hey, there's construction equipment here. Instead, when she finally made her turn, she swung wide, into the blocked-off lanes, and had to come back into the correct lane of traffic to go north. Like, this was the more active portion of the zone. If she lives in the area and has taken this route at any time in the past few weeks, it's obvious the road is getting worked on. Sheesh.
Things were slightly better on the way home. I was tempted to take another route, as I'd ended up detouring once I got close to work. The road was down to three total lanes--one northbound, one southbound straight, and one southbound right turn. Since someone was in the southbound straight lane waiting to turn left, I said screw it, I'll make the right turn and go around the long way, like when it gets flooded by work. I still opted to take my normal way home, and the main part of the paving was done and all lanes were open at that end. On the north end, oh look, we're all being funneled into the southbound lanes. I got to watch some of the paving, and the trucks have these sideways seats so the workers can see what they've just gone over by looking to their left, as opposed to it being behind them. It's kind of bizarre to see. The way the cars lined up required not one, but two workers to help with traffic, and I was very thankful when the car in front of me opted against making a left turn at the intersection and went straight so as not to block traffic. Yes, thank you, there are other ways around this intersection.
I'd had to take a detour back on Saturday. There'd been some sort of accident on 38 in West Chicago which blocked the roadway completely between both sets of railroad tracks. I ended up just following the cars in front of me, and we went down a road I haven't been down in 20+ years. I'd had a college friend who lived in an apartment on this road and I'd given her a ride home a couple times. It made me wonder what she's up to. The awkward part of this detour is that where it ended, technically it's right-turn-only onto 38, but considering the police were there and making people turn left, well, we got to disobey the traffic control device. Hey, I was just happy it was quick and relatively painless, and I was still early enough that I could get gas on the way to work and not after. The weather was scheduled to be blazing and I wasn't about to get gas when the heat indices were above 100F. Luckily we had some cloud cover which tempered our temps, but I didn't know that would happen at the time.
Saturday also happened to be graduation day for the high school by work, two months later than originally planned. In driving past there last week, there had been a tent set up in one of the parking lots, and it looked like there were graduation gowns hanging on a rack at one point. I suppose they could've been choir robes, too. Risers were set up under the tent. I could see people rehearsing something. It was hard to tell if there was a performance practice or if it was, say, show choir camp. There would be times when a bunch of people would be out there, a number of them under the tent, while more were out in the sun. By Friday and Saturday, another tent could be seen in the distance, between the school and the football field. When I left work Saturday afternoon, and got stopped at a light, I could see a car waiting to go to the high school with balloons in school colors taped to the windows. A few lights up the road, here came another car, this time with rainbow balloons. Hey, you have to make things as festive as you can. The school's marquee showed that graduation was spread over two days, with four separate, hour-long ceremonies each day divided up alphabetically by last name.
Finally, I have an idea of what's going up at the corner of Batavia and Butterfield: Senior housing. Last week a sign was posted saying Warrenville Horizon was being built there. I'm not aware of any senior housing in that town, so this could be something welcome, and it's a pretty location right next to the river and adjacent to the forest preserve. I don't know how affordable it's going to be, but at least that corner will be utilized after so many years of being vacant.
The Keystone Kops are at it again. Marquees popped up last week stating "Echelon paving begins 7-21-20." In preparation for that, the construction workers marked the roadway as to where the regular lanes should be. As expected, this showed that the temporary lane markings were NOT put in the correct place. Again, in a place where there should be four lanes, only three were marked, and those were supposed to then go down to two lanes on the opposite side of an intersection. I'm surprised there haven't been any accidents around there. So, with the redone lane markings--which I got to see happen, care of a guy driving a truck and holding a special can of paint out the window to make lines on the roadway--it became painfully clear where cars were supposed to be lined up. I've ended up just following the fresh paint line rather than the thicker lane stripes since they're so awful right there. Meanwhile, around the same time appeared this odd, shiny, dark stripe of something sort of resembling tar down the middle of the road, basically in the area where the lanes would be divided. There were three stripes in most places, between the two lanes in each direction, then separating each direction. I was surprised they stayed so shiny for days.
Today was the start of echelon paving. I had to look that up, figuring it meant top-level or something. It actually means there's more than one paving truck working at once, so that when there's a paver in one lane, one comes right behind it in the other lane. I suppose it helps to move the process along faster as well as helps keep the lanes relatively level, I suppose? I didn't look that deeply into it. It was clear, heading into the construction zone, that this was going to be a mess. It looked like the northbound lanes were already worked on, and perhaps northbound traffic was supposed to share the southbound lanes, but I saw cars in the freshly-paved northbound lanes. Uh...what. It's like there's a dearth of orange traffic cones or something and the construction crew is unable to mark everything clearly. Farther down, yes, northbound and southbound traffic were supposed to be sharing the southbound lanes. I mean...I get that the drivers I'm around aren't the brightest candles on the birthday cake, but can you help them out a little? Granted, some people are beyond help; at a light toward the south end of construction, I watched as a lady made a left from a cross street into the construction zone. She'd been sitting there for a while, so it's not like she'd just arrived at the intersection, and had she bothered to pay attention she'd have noticed, oh, hey, there's construction equipment here. Instead, when she finally made her turn, she swung wide, into the blocked-off lanes, and had to come back into the correct lane of traffic to go north. Like, this was the more active portion of the zone. If she lives in the area and has taken this route at any time in the past few weeks, it's obvious the road is getting worked on. Sheesh.
Things were slightly better on the way home. I was tempted to take another route, as I'd ended up detouring once I got close to work. The road was down to three total lanes--one northbound, one southbound straight, and one southbound right turn. Since someone was in the southbound straight lane waiting to turn left, I said screw it, I'll make the right turn and go around the long way, like when it gets flooded by work. I still opted to take my normal way home, and the main part of the paving was done and all lanes were open at that end. On the north end, oh look, we're all being funneled into the southbound lanes. I got to watch some of the paving, and the trucks have these sideways seats so the workers can see what they've just gone over by looking to their left, as opposed to it being behind them. It's kind of bizarre to see. The way the cars lined up required not one, but two workers to help with traffic, and I was very thankful when the car in front of me opted against making a left turn at the intersection and went straight so as not to block traffic. Yes, thank you, there are other ways around this intersection.
I'd had to take a detour back on Saturday. There'd been some sort of accident on 38 in West Chicago which blocked the roadway completely between both sets of railroad tracks. I ended up just following the cars in front of me, and we went down a road I haven't been down in 20+ years. I'd had a college friend who lived in an apartment on this road and I'd given her a ride home a couple times. It made me wonder what she's up to. The awkward part of this detour is that where it ended, technically it's right-turn-only onto 38, but considering the police were there and making people turn left, well, we got to disobey the traffic control device. Hey, I was just happy it was quick and relatively painless, and I was still early enough that I could get gas on the way to work and not after. The weather was scheduled to be blazing and I wasn't about to get gas when the heat indices were above 100F. Luckily we had some cloud cover which tempered our temps, but I didn't know that would happen at the time.
Saturday also happened to be graduation day for the high school by work, two months later than originally planned. In driving past there last week, there had been a tent set up in one of the parking lots, and it looked like there were graduation gowns hanging on a rack at one point. I suppose they could've been choir robes, too. Risers were set up under the tent. I could see people rehearsing something. It was hard to tell if there was a performance practice or if it was, say, show choir camp. There would be times when a bunch of people would be out there, a number of them under the tent, while more were out in the sun. By Friday and Saturday, another tent could be seen in the distance, between the school and the football field. When I left work Saturday afternoon, and got stopped at a light, I could see a car waiting to go to the high school with balloons in school colors taped to the windows. A few lights up the road, here came another car, this time with rainbow balloons. Hey, you have to make things as festive as you can. The school's marquee showed that graduation was spread over two days, with four separate, hour-long ceremonies each day divided up alphabetically by last name.
Finally, I have an idea of what's going up at the corner of Batavia and Butterfield: Senior housing. Last week a sign was posted saying Warrenville Horizon was being built there. I'm not aware of any senior housing in that town, so this could be something welcome, and it's a pretty location right next to the river and adjacent to the forest preserve. I don't know how affordable it's going to be, but at least that corner will be utilized after so many years of being vacant.