LOCO Motion in Colonial Heights

Traffic in the city turns my head around.
No, no, no, no, no.
Backed up on the freeway, backed up in the church,
Everywhere you look there's a frown, frown.

                                                  Creedence Clearwater Revival

So at last the Boulevard is open and ready for action. Oh wait, what’s this? We forgot to put in the classy cross walks? How can that be?

Maybe we are too busy measuring perennial rye.

So we are back to square one when it comes to getting around on the south end of the Boulevard. Who knows how long it will take for this, OOOPS we forgot, to get done. Seemingly this project has no end. And the effect it is having on the businesses along the corridor is worse than people seem to know.

My guess is all of the businesses in the south corridor are suffering. Sure, they are putting on a good face, and some appear to be “doing well.” But the truth of the matter is that most of them are suffering to one extent or another; either their cash flow is short or they are barely surviving.

Ask the business owners and most will put on an upbeat face and tell you things are OK. But underneath it all things have not been going well.

A project that should have been completed in six months ended up taking years to complete. During that time travel on the road was so restrictive that residents and anyone who could manage stayed away from that end of town. Not for the six months it should have taken, which would have been viewed as an inconvenience, but for so long that it changed traffic patterns.

Even when the whole thing is finally done, Dupuy Road “improvements” notwithstanding, it will take a very long time for the traffic flow to get back to where it was three years ago. In the meantime, the local businesses are stuck with having the road essentially shut down around the Dupuy Road intersection.

For me, I try my best to avoid travelling on that end of Jeff Davis, how about you? If I have to go there, or better yet, if I want to go there, I typically find a back road that avoids the biggest part of the nuisance as possible. I make strategic strikes for my trips down there, and I try to make sure that I bundle up anything I want to do into one visit.

It’s sad. I drove down the Boulevard the first night it was open. It was awesome. It was stupendous. The road was clear and wide and a joy to drive. But it didn’t last very long.

I know at some point all of this will go away. And for most of us who live in the city, we can simply ignore the businesses on that end of town or, do as I do, plan my trips and stay out of the area as much as possible. The bigger question is how long will it take for the traffic patterns to return to “normal,” whatever that is.