My Commute Will Now *Rot* (Updated)
by In Denville, New Jersey this past Friday, there was a big bad accident on a bridge on Interstate 80 West. This is not good.
It involved three tractor trailers, and one of them was a gasoline truck. About 600 gallons of fuel were poured on the highway and the bridge and it caught fire. Both sides of I-80 were closed for the day, and that section of I-80 is still closed on the Westbound side. The bridge is now unusable. They are supposedly gonna put up a temporary bridge for the rest of the summer until the real bridge can be repaired. Before they get the temporary bridge up, I-80 West is likely to be closed in that section for like 8 to 10 weeks, I've heard.
This really STINKS because I have to come that way on my way home. The detour they have set up takes the entire four lanes of traffic on that side of the highway and sends it onto smaller local roads. During rush hour, I-80 traffic is already slow, sometimes bumper to bumper. It is going to be horrendous now.
I don't even want to leave work until like 11pm, cause I think if I leave at 6pm, I probably won't get home till like 10pm anyway.
I am not looking forward to this.
Here is the story in the local newspaper.
Update - the aftermath: Well, my drive home wasn't as bad as I had expected. It took me about an hour and twenty minutes, which is fifty five minutes longer than normal. Of course, that was at 7:30pm. I was stuck on Rt 46 most of that time, but I cut through some back roads and went past Saint Claire's Hospital and that saved me a lot of time. Tonight I'm gonna take a shortcut with my dad through Boonton.
Also, I got to see the temporary bridge they put up. It's crazy, I've never seen anything like it. For about 200 feet on either side of the old bridge, they made asphalt ramps that go up about 6 feet or so and then they put a temporary metal bridge across the new gap. It looks like it's two lanes wide, and they will be able to work on the old bridge underneath the new temporary one. Pretty crazy. I bet you'd never see anything like that in Pennsylvania. They'd just redirect traffic over to the Eastbound bridge.
AI Summary
5 Comments
Wow, get this! My commute is actually better now that Route 80 is closed! It's so cool. I work in Fairfield right on 46. so what I do is go west on 46 and take the route 80 W/287 Exit in parsipp. I can see all the traffic backing up on 46 right in front of me due to detours and such, but I avoid all that by getting off. Then its free and clear on the route 80 local (to 287) cause most people have already gotten off route 80 to avoid the 202 detour. (Yes, Yes) so I just take 287 down through Mo-Town, and take sussex up to my house in Randolph. at this point Sussex gets backed up like crazy, but I detour through the little Morris Plains/Mendham/Randolph back roads and get to my house with no problem.
Very nice, Dean. I'm glad to hear that my bad fortune is working for your benefit!
yeah, but get this. Last night I was leaving to go to my meeting and saw that sussex was still backed up real bad, so I decided to trailblaze through Mendham. I had no idea where I was going, I just figured if I kept the Sun in front of me and to my left I'd get there. and I just hoped I ran across Dover-Chester Road at some point. Well long story short, I took a lot of wrong turns, discovered tons of Farms and such, ended up going through Chester, and finally ended up in Roxbury. I had no idea where I was going (or where I was) so I just followed some guy for a little bit until a road I was on looked familiar. I ended up by the Pet Store on Route 10 in Roxbury. What an interesting evening.
hahahaha... and i'm reaping all the benefitsssssss
this whole situation has not affected my commute as far as i can tell, as i stay as far away from rt 80 as possible... what does *Rot* mean?