I just had the misfortune of being caught in an completely avoidable traffic jam on southbound Deerfoot Trail between Airport Trail and McKnight Boulevard. It turns out they had lanes closed for road repairs which I can’t say that I really have an issue with. After all, the road does need to be fixed. What I have an issue with is how they went about it.
I entered the freeway from Country Hills Boulevard. On Country Hills, there was no indication whatsoever that there was any kind of work going on on Deerfoot. Nothing. The last exit before the construction zone is Airport Trail. There was absolutely nothing at all indicating what was going on before that exit. The last chance to get out of the traffic jam and there was no warning. Brilliant.
Now, here’s the really brilliant part. They had a sign on the merge from Airport Trail indicating major delays. What’s the point of that? There is no possible way to avoid them at that point. I do have to give the guy operating the sign truck some credit, though, because he was out taking pictures of the traffic backlog and on the radio to the work crew to get out of the way and clear traffic. And, when I was coming back the other way, it was clear that traffic had cleared a large amount.
My questions are as follows. Why were there no warning signs on the cross roads before the work? Why was there no warning prior to the Airport Trail exit (the last chance to exit before the work)? And, why wasn’t this work being done at night? The volume of traffic that uses Deerfoot Trail on a daily basis, even on weekends, is astounding. Had they done the work at night, it would have taken less time and been much less disruptive! They usually do this kind of work at night. So why not this time?