There's a stretch of road I travel weekly that's mostly potholes. If you drive faster than 5 miles per hour, your brain feels like a softball in a paint shaker.
A sign went up last month: "This road will be resurfaced." Usually there's a date when construction will start, but that's all it said. Translation: We know, we know, WE KNOW OK
And I appreciated that. That sign gives you hope, which will instantly curdle to fury when they block it off and fix it.
We're like that: We take good roads for granted and seethe when the barrels go up. Well, clench your teeth: The Minnesota Department of Transportation has revealed its new construction plans for 2014: 75 projects in the Twin Cities, 194 in Greater Minnesota and absolutely nothing in Lesser Minnesota. Here are some highlights:
• Hwy. 100: Bridge removal; drivers advised to floor it, hit the ramp and hope for the best.
• Interstate 94 (between St. Cloud and the North Dakota border): Road will be removed and replaced with something that's absolutely straight. Single lane for both directions. Expect delays, weeping, fistfights, gunplay.
• Hwy. 23: Putting up some of those "speed monitored by aircraft" signs and painting silhouettes of planes on the road. They haven't done that since 1967, but man, it works.
• Hwy. 125 (south of Leechburg): Installation of those rumble strips on the shoulder that go "BRRRRRRRRRR" when you drive over them, making you realize you are driving and can't remember the last 20 miles.
