Spontaneous Combustion or Stimulus Dollars at Work?

Growing up in Alaska we always used to say there were only two seasons, Winter and Road Construction. The winter snow and ice invariably destroyed roads so much that come the dryer summer weather it seemed every road was in dire need of repair. Once we moved to the lower 48 I thought that I would never again experience Road Construction in quite that capitalized, Alaskan way. Enter our weekly commute to Chicago over the weekend as my husband completes his part-time MBA program. It was novel and interesting in September. By December the excitement was wearing thin. By January and February sheer terror reigned (icy roads, late nights and exhausted drivers). I greeted this spring with relief, and desperate hope that at the very least, the commute might finally achieve an angst reduction. Imagine my dismay when overnight the entire city of Chicago and its surrounding roadways seemed to have spontaneously combusted.

Driving north into the city I exhausted our clutch and gave myself a permanent foot-cramp during the two hour patience marathon otherwise known as the last 30 mile stretch of I-55 entering the city. I managed to keep my temper (and not murder my side-seat driver and his ‘helpful’ suggestions) by telling myself it was a one-time fluke. But then on the way west OUT of the city that night, and then back east IN to the city the next morning and then back OUT again headed south and home Saturday afternoon, we were met with construction, on every major road. There are only Wicked Witches at every compass point in this story. We stay with family Friday night each weekend, and when we (finally) arrived at their neighborhood to find their subdivision road ripped out, I might have sad a tiny little bad word.

In desperation I jumped on google maps to see if it was just my own little Charlie Brown rain-cloud of road construction following me around, or if Chicagoland roadways really had all spontaneously combusted overnight. Unfortunately, the latter was true. Well - not the spontaneous combustion part. But the mass of highway demolition frenzy, spurred on by our stimulus dollars, looks to be part of our commute for a long, long time to come.