If you haven't had the good fortune to go driving in downtown Oklahoma City lately, thank your lucky stars because there is absolutely nothing good or fortunate about traffic and the road construction downtown.
It seems as if every street in downtown in Oklahoma City is all under repair at the same time. I knew the construction of the Devon tower would be an inconvenience. Aside from being an unbelievable distraction as I watch out my window, feel my building shake, or wait on the elevator due to the increased traffic our building since all the construction companies seemed to be headquartered in our building, the City of Oklahoma City has decide every road around my building - AND ALL OF DOWNTOWN - at the same time.
I don't know what brain surgeon allowed the City to begin an unbelievable amount of road improvement projects at the same time as the Devon Tower project, Sandridge Energy's new building project, the reconstruction of the Myriad Gardens and who-knows-what-else, but they should be tied to a road construction barrel so commuters can share our thoughts about the construction projects as we drive into and out of downtown every day.
I left my office this morning to run a quick errand at lunch. I jumped in the truck and left my parking garage after waiting for what seemed like forever for an opening in the traffic to get out on the road. Why did I have to wait so long? Because what used to be a four-lane street outside the garage is now only two lanes. And did I mention this is the main northbound road on west side of downtown. It used to be four lanes with all traffic going one-way north. Now we're down to two lanes. So, think about this for a minute. They built a road to provide the main ingress from the south for the bulk of downtown and they believed it would take four-lanes to carry all the traffic. Now they've cut the number of lanes in half - but nobody bothered to reduce the number of cars.
After getting out of the garage, I drove to the First National Building. After running my errand, I headed back out the truck and started for I-40 (which is south of the FNB). I turned south on the main road that runs between the Sheraton and the Renaissance Hotels and smack into the north side of the Cox Convention Center. I know there is road construction both to the east and west of this intersection but I have to go one way or the other and there are no signs telling you how to get to the interstate. Before the construction began, you would turn to the west at this intersection, go a block and then turn south to I-40. Nothing tells you this has changed until you get to the street you would turn south on and the road closed signs force you to go north. One block north of this intersection is another forced turn to the east. If you can follow all those directions, you'll see that the construction has forced me to drive around the block looking for away to get where I want to go. I did finally make it the four blocks south to I-40, but I had to go three blocks north and two blocks east before I could go back south to the interstate. Follow all that??
I'm not some idiot that doesn't know his way around downtown. I'm not some tourist who's never seen Oklahoma City. I work down there. Every day.
I told you the the street providing major ingress to downtown is down to two lanes. It gets even better. The street providing major egress from downtown is also down to two lanes. Normally, when you close lanes on a multi-lane road, you close multiple lanes on the right side of the street or on the left side of the street. In this case, the brain trust has closed the center three lanes of Hudson and has taken away the curbside parking next to our building so we can use it at a driving lane. To help with this picture, think about five lanes of traffic all headed south. Now, close the center three lanes and what do you think happens to traffic at 5 p.m. every day?
I'm sure somewhere there is a single person that had to approve all the construction projects. I find it hard to believe someone really looked at the projects in their entirety and thought all these projects should be completed at one time.
For those of us who travel it every day, its like being in a maze looking for the cheese only to discover the guy who was supposed to put out the cheese couldn't find his way to work to put it out. It's only two more years until the finish the Devon Tower. Maybe we'll have at least one road open with no construction by then.
