Detour

The only thing worse than living in a community that has detours due to road construction every year would be living in a community that never did any road projects.

You don’t realize just how often you use something until you are not able to use it anymore. For city of Medford of residents and those who come into the city to work everyday, this has been pounded home with the ongoing Perkins Street road reconstruction project.

The project extends from the bridge over the Black River near the intersection with Wisconsin Ave. to about 4th Street. It is bad enough when a road project disrupts a residential neighborhood. Those headaches dealing with mud, dust, lack of access are hard enough in a neighborhood, but at least they are localized and typically only impact the people who live there.

Perkins Street is a major road artery in the city connecting Hwy 13 to the industrial and downtown areas. What this means is that literally thousands of people use it every day to go to and from work.

In the big picture, the ongoing road closure should not be that big of a deal. After all, it should not be that big of a hassle for me to go out to Hwy 13 and then down Hwy 64 to Wisconsin to get to my office each day. In absolute time and distance, the difference is a matter of a few minutes and maybe an extra mile or two.

Yet, I find myself chaffing at this and becoming impatient with the seemingly never-ending excavation that is part of a road rebuild project. I know they are moving as fast as they can given elevation changes, weather conditions and the hundreds of moving parts that make up any road project. I got to see this first-hand a few years ago when the city rebuilt the road in front of my own home and am gradually paying off my share of the special assessment for that project.

Perhaps it is that I am spoiled. My typical morning commute is about nine/tenths of a mile with most of that being downhill. Having to switch and go two miles and getting stuck at a light has doubled and sometimes tripled my commute time.

Yes. I am fully aware that I am whining. And yes, I would like a nice block of sharp cheddar to go along with my whine, thank you very much for offering.

My fairly minor inconvenience at having my drive time lengthened by a handful of minutes each day is nothing compared to those who work at Sierra Pacific and who trudge through the worksite each day to get into their factory.

Road construction season in Wisconsin is never fun. But things could always be worse.

Medford has traditionally been aggressive when it comes to maintaining their roads. Each year the city is redoing some portion of the road system and working hard to keep up on maintenance. This is a far cry from communities that allow their infrastructure maintenance efforts to slide. Good roads and utilities are an essential ingredient in the growth of a community, but that doesn’t mean we have to like the disruptions caused when road projects are taking place.

According to city coordinator Joe Harris, there is a glimmer of hope that the end will soon be in sight for the Perkins Street project. Crews should be done digging new holes and the trucks are busy hauling in loads of gravel.

Curb and gutter will be in place in the next few weeks and then it will be a matter of timing when the asphalt can finally be put down. If things go according to schedule, by the times the leaves start changing color, the road project headaches will be a faint memory — at least until the next project begins.

Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News.