People heading east on I-40, between U.S. 70 in Wake County (Exit 306) and N.C. 42 in Johnston County (Exit 312) face heavy delays from 7 p.m. to 10 a.m. each night through Wednesday. The state Department of Transportation is urging travelers to use alternative routes if at all possible. The DOT plans to close the outside lane along that I-40 stretch. The lane closing is related to paving operations for the U.S. 70 Clayton Bypass, which is under construction. The state expects the $123 million bypass to open in June 2009. The speed limit on I-40 will be 55 mph when the lane is closed. Other times, the speed limit in the work zone is 60 mph.
Well, it can't be from only 7pm till 10am. I tried to get on 40 from Exit 306 towards exit 312 at lunch time. Traffic was at an absolute stand still, not even moving. So if you're going from Garner to 4042, take an alternate route!
ahhh a pet peeve of mine..... Every day many of us drive through the construction zone on I-40 on our way to work without ever paying a bit of attention to what is actually going on. We are simply trudging along, making our way through our morning commute. We are in a hurry. Drinking coffee, putting on makeup, talking on the phone, or just plain tired and not paying all that much attention to the highway with all those silly orange cones all over the place. Those cones have become a mundane part of our scenery. We hardly even see them anymore. Guess what folks! Those cones are there for a reason. You are driving through a work zone. So what? “Get this stupid stuff out of my way, I am late for work!” Is that what you are thinking? I agree. But despite that, there are men and women out there working to build that 70 Bypass, who are in danger because you, and I, are annoyed. Our haste or inattentiveness while driving puts the men and women on this project in jeopardy. We have all seem them up on top of the over pass way out of the way. How can we possibly cause them harm? What if they are walking near the edge of the road we are traveling on? What if a working was crossing the road? Could you see them and stop in time. Ya think? Not when you are doing 70 in a 60. I have seen you all out there, not paying attention and speeding. Heck, just yesterday I drove westbound I-40 at 10:20 AM from exit 312 to the Beltline. In the construction zone, I made a point of doing the speed limit just to see what would happen. I-40 isn’t all that busy at that time, but over twenty cars passed me in that short stretch of road. No one remained behind me to obey the speed limit. Great job folks. I would have loved for every one of you to get a ticket. Is it really so terrible to drive sixty miles per hour for about 2 miles? What if a worker was out there? What if he was trying to cross the road? What is a slow moving truck needed to get on or exit the highway? You would be at fault because the posted limit is 60 MPH and sometime even less. So what? Well, if that was your husband, father, son, brother, uncle… heck, wife, mother or sister, for that matter, you would care enough to slow down. Just because you don’t know them personally, doesn’t mean that someone else doesn’t love them very much. Yes, the workers may do dumb things at times too, but they deserve our consideration. Heck the guy who was walking down the side of the road should have been a wee bit smarter and walked farther away from the on coming traffic. Who knew a truck with mirrors that stuck out was going to hit him. Funny? Not too his family who buried him. What about the guy who ran back to his truck to answer his phone he had forgotten? His wife will never forgive herself for calling at the same moment a driver was speeding down the road, distracted just enough not to see her husband. These accidents have not happened on our beloved I-40, but they are both true stories that have happened on North Carolina highways. Look at it this way too, people aren’t the only things out there you could hit. Equipment and materials can cause damage to your vehicle. You may want to slow down just to protect your car. Either way just do it. If just a few people slow down while driving in the construction zones it will force the rest of the traffic to slow down a bit. If a few of you will commit to driving the posted limit it would slow down the out-of-towners and the people who are always late. Doing the speed limit on that stretch of highway or any highway will not make you late for work or an appointment. That extra ten minutes of sleep, that longer-then-usual hot shower, yelling at your kids about their rooms…all that will make you late; not slowing down in a work zone. We complain about traffic and the condition of our roads. These workers are dong just as we asked, working for better North Carolina roads. Can you at least give them a fighting chance to live through the job? I know that is extreme, but we need to “give’em a brake” as the saying goes. Slow down. Pay attention. Hang up the phone. Take your foot off the gas and do the posted speed limit in a work zone. Oh, and stop giving me not so friendly hand gestures when I do.
You tell em' girl. I've gotten dirty looks because I choose to obey the speed limit in work zones as well. But that's okay. I won't be the one with a ticket or a guilty conscience because someone was injured or possibly killed. All of us will enjoy the much need benefits of having this by-pass to Clayton when it's completed. I think we can all help out by just doing our part and obeying the speed limit in all work zones!
I THIRD all that! I'm SO sick of people gett'in all ****ed off at me because I'm DOING THE SPEED LIMIT in the work zone. If you don't like it take a bus!:evil:
Your right Jennifer I was out and about today off from work and I saw it backed up bumper to bumper. I came back going down 50 to 210. Rush
when people honk at me, i like to honk back. it gives them a strange reaction of "Huh?!" mixed with "WHY DIDNT MY HORN WORK TO DRIVE THIS PERSON FASTER!?" and its funny. I'm immature.
I drive it every single day going to work, and every single day I just pull over to the right lane and put my cruise control on and ignore everyone else lol..they can go around me if they like. I make sure I have enough time in my mornings to get to work on time. A extra 10 minutes for traffic just in case. I have only had to call work one time to tell them I would be late from 6 school buses that held us up for that 2 miles. What happend to the cops that used to sit out there from time to time, that was working really good and they were pulling people all the time. Might want to bring them back again. Rush
