By Santiago Ferreira Vila | Observer Contributor
Construction. The one nightmare that affects almost every commuter, whether it is just a simple (or not so simple) one-lane closing, or an entire street wiped out. Mount Wachusett Community College has a student body of about 10,000, according to its website, and every one of those students are commuters. Construction, unfortunately, makes the effort of driving to the school difficult. Whether it be the Gardner, Leominster, or Devens campus.
Commuting towards the Devens Campus shouldn’t be all that bad. Located off Route 2, exit 37, there is no major roadwork being done. This means your cars should be taking a smooth ride, which it is unless you’re coming westbound and enjoy taking the scenic route through Leominster. As of now, Leominster is renovating one of its busiest streets, Mechanic Street. This street spans from downtown, all the way towards the Old Union Turnpike bordering Lancaster. For some commuters, the Route 2 west exit is located off Mechanic St. The street has either been torn up or filled with man-made potholes. That’s right, they make their own potholes in the streets, as if we didn’t have enough to swerve through. According to the MassDot website, the work on Mechanic Street is project number 604928, and is planned to run until spring 2017.
The car is an important tool, one that needs to be taken care of very carefully. The amount of damage potholes and stripped roads can do to your car is extensive. According to the Firestone website, “pothole damage is an everyday road hazard and a tricky one at that”. Construction on major roads such as Mechanic St. can puncture your tires completely or even cause suspension damage or misalignment. Now I’m not saying this roadwork is unnecessary, but I think I speak for every driver, whether they take Mechanic or any other major road that is having work done, that there needs to be more precautions for areas like this. With every second my car runs on these kinds of streets, it is slowly losing a second of its life.
Another major problem with construction is the work being done on highways. Again, this is not me blasting the cities and towns for wanting to fix up what needs to be fixed. I’m just saying that they should be done at times where major traffic is not occurring. Let’s say; for example, not during the morning rush hour? People are headed to work and students off to class, but they are met with staggering speeds and frequent stops on the highways. Why? Because someone thought the best time to work on a bridge was when everyone needed to cross under it. I’ll be more specific, the Route 140 bridge in Westminster, the one that overpasses route 2 east and west. Currently MassDot sees this as project 86777 and is set to be finished fall 2016, but doesn’t seem like it so far.
Many who travel this route to head to the Mount in the mornings would recognize this project, mostly due to closing lanes at the most random times. With personal experience of commuting Monday through Thursday to get from Leominster to Gardner, I can tell you the frustration of travelling through there.
For a few weeks at the start of the semester, it seemed as if the bridge was under repairs, yet at the morning travel times there was no sign of workers or any obstructions of the road. Unfortunately, I got used to that. One day I was driving down that exact area on Route 2, no signs or pre warnings beforehand, and to my surprise the right lane was closed. Now a regular driver probably hits about 60 mph on that stretch, so when a whole lane is blocked out of nowhere, you can imagine the strain a driver puts on his breaks, especially when the left lane is full. What did not help the sudden stop, was the tow truck twice the size of my car, coming up behind me, still going 60. If it wasn’t for that driver’s quick thinking into turning towards the breakdown lane, I would have been hit for sure.
Now again I want to say that this is not an attack towards what I’m sure is much needed construction, but more a comment on the execution on how the work is done. Many commuters face similar problems of delay or damage to their own cars, just putting an overall strain on their days.
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