July 22, 2002 Road construction frustrating drivers Stop-and-go traffic - mostly stop, not so much go - is no fun whatsoever Look up the definition of the word "irritation" and here is what you'll find: "[from the Latin: irrita-tio] 1. the act or process of irritating 2. a condition of soreness or inflammation 3. the act or process of driving on I-15, Wall Avenue, 1900 West, Washington Boulevard or Harrison Boulevard within or near Ogden, Utah." Well, OK, we made up that last part - but if we were rewriting the dictionary ... Two weeks ago today, the Utah Department of Transportation narrowed I-15 to one lane in each direction between Ogden's 31st Street and Marriott-Slaterville. The first day or two saw shorter delays than the state agency had predicted. Ever since then, though, the news has been mostly horrendous - the definition of which, if we were rewriting the dictionary, would be ... well, you know. For example, one of our editors decided to play the part of guinea pig on Wednesday, hopping on I-15 in Layton at shortly after noon and driving north to our offices on Ogden's 2nd Street. Usually a 15- to 20-minute drive, it was transformed into a 75-minute stop-and-go ordeal. He's had people tell him they're avoiding the whole Ogden area until construction's done; that ought to warm the hearts of Ogden and Weber County merchants, as consumers are trained over the course of three months to find what they need elsewhere. Try taking an alternate route, though, and it sometimes turns out to be more of the same. Wall Avenue is all torn up - and will continue to be for sometime. That throws traffic onto Washington Boulevard, where the lights are said to be coordinated, but as everyone knows: only if you happen to hit them just right and proceed faster than the speed limit. Those who drive into the Ogden area from Davis or Morgan counties along Harrison Boulevard know that it's become clotted, too, with people attempting to avoid the coagulating traffic on I-15. And Riverdale Road? Please, it was bad enough before all the construction. And the intersection of 1900 West and 12th Street is so truly awful that UDOT quickly removed it from the list of suggested alternates. There are times of the day that the heavens smile upon drivers unlucky enough to find themselves there, with nary a wait to get through the light. But northbound, southbound and westbound traffic is usually at a crawl. We remember all the complaints about traffic during the four years of I-15 reconstruction in Salt Lake County, and perhaps we should take heart that the Top of Utah is looking at months, not years, of ramp closures, lane restrictions and outright freeway shutdowns. Still, we are beginning to see wisdom in the comments of those observant souls who have pointed out that nothing short of a sadist could be responsible for this confluence of road construction projects. The dictionary says a sadist enjoys "... inflicting physical or psychological pain on another or anothers through the gratuitous piling on of road-construction projects, especially in Ogden, Utah." OK, we made up that definition. But that doesn't mean it isn't true. 50