The Great Bridge Repair of 2011

On September 19, they closed a bridge a mile west of our place. Totally closed it, complete with a 5 mile detour. Kind of a pain, if our destination was points west, such as Twinsburg, Hudson, Akron, Macedonia or Missouri. In fact driving to Missouri was sufficiently more difficult that we avoided it altogether.

The bridge crews were kind enough to put large detour signs up for the motorists, to keep them from making wasted trips all the way to the bridge, which was a solid mile and a half from the nearest alternate route. Yet, people ignored those signs in droves. We had a game where we sat at the end of our driveway and watched the cars head west, brake, turn around, and come back. In any given five minute period three or four cars would do this. One of us even got out of her car and waved at them as they doubled back. And once, while I was getting the mail, I shouted at a passing car with an open window, 'IT'S REALLY CLOSED.' It didn't help,

The inconvenience of the detour was lessened a tiny bit by the fact that our road was so quiet.  It's a state route, with a 50 MPH speed limit. There is always traffic. But with the bridge out, you could literally stand in the middle of the road for minutes until someone who believes detour signs aren't for them drove by. I really liked it. But only until I had to drive the 2 miles to Twinsburg and leave 10 minutes earlier.

So today I drove down to the bridge to see how it was going, and there were guys painting stripes. I asked when it would be open and he said, "In about 20 minutes, as soon as the paint dries." Sweet!

So now the traffic has picked up and our pastime of making fun of people who were texting instead of watching detour signs is over. Just in time for Thanksgiving. We have a lot of people bringing a lot of dogs and this will make it easier.

And it will mean that 2 college kids will get home ten minutes earlier for Thanksgiving break. Good news all around.