Published: June 30, 2009 04:02 pm      

Traffic from I-20 came calling Saturday night

Steve Boggs, Democrat Publisher

It was getting close to 8 p.m. Saturday night and the highway guys were ready. They had barriers, barrels, cops, signs and flashing lights poised and ready to go. They had sent out notice in the newspaper (See Friday, Page 1), talked about it on the radio and put up notices on Web sites. They were ready when zero hour arrived.

Diverting traffic off an interstate is no small task. Doing it at Weatherford’s busiest intersection is an even greater challenge. However, with careful planning, some help from Weatherford’s finest and with cooperation from most motorists, the Texas Department of Transportation pulled it off Saturday night.

TxDOT closed traffic in both directions on Interstate 20 for 10 hours Saturday night. Construction crews had to demolish the side rails atop the I-20 bridge over South Main, and big chunks of concrete had to be deposited on the interstate below. The work is part of a multiple-tiered $54 million plan to relieve traffic congestion in the city.

The plan was to divert interstate traffic onto the South Main exits in both directions, route it across South Main and back onto the interstate as quickly and safely as possible. Not only was there to be no traffic on the bridge, but there could be no traffic under the bridge, either. Local traffic had to divert around the bridge at Tin Top to the west and Clear Lake to the east.

The bridge had been closed for a while as crews got ready for the overnight project. The intersection of South Main and I-20 is already busy, and the lack of access to the bridge only added to the traffic count along the frontage roads. That was nothing compared to 8:01 p.m., when interstate travelers were re-routed up the South Main exit and across South Main.

From Dickey’s Barbecue parking lot, we counted 40 trucks in a five-minute period moving around the construction zone. Not SUVs, mind you, but the big rigs. Even on a Saturday night there was a constant stream of traffic meandering up the ramp across the intersection and back onto the interstate on the other side. For the most part, the exercise went according to plan: A necessary inconvenience to drivers in order to affix a long-term solution to Weatherford’s traffic congestion. As one bystander put it, “It’s worth it.”

It’s sometimes easy to forget how much traffic flows on I-20 each day. That certainly wasn’t the case last weekend when all that traffic came up the hill and into the city, even for only a quarter of a mile or so.

It’s not every day both South Main and I-20 are closed at the same time. It’s by far the busiest intersection in town, which is why the entire roadway is being widened in the first place. It was interesting to see how the supports for the new bridge had already been put into place. The guys working on that particular project didn’t waste any time Saturday night, either. By 8:10 p.m., a Bobcat outfitted with a jackhammer was already at work on the bridge, and the lanes below were already littered with debris.

We watched it all unfold with precision, timing and in glorious frustration. That old saying about it being the darkest just before the dawn certainly came to mind. In the meantime, Weatherford motorists are to be commended for their patience as this massive road-building project moves forward.