I was shocked as I drove to Fort Worth this morning that construction is complete on I-30 west of Sylvan Avenue. After years of work, it’s done.
Really?
Getting to Fort Worth now takes almost twice as long as it did before construction.
What’s impossible to do now that was possible before I-30 was reconstructed was pick a lane and stay in that lane from Dallas to Fort Worth. On the new improved I-30, lanes come and go. Sometimes the highway is three lanes. Sometimes it’s five. The right lane keeps dropping off as exit lanes so traffic keeps merging over. Sometimes it’s the left lane that disappears.
And those lanes are narrow in some places. Cement barriers come right up to the edge of the left lane making them unsafe. The amount of paint from cars and trucks scraping the barriers is proof of that.
Most of the construction was for HOV lanes. Years of constructing HOV lanes that no one uses. Well, not no one. On my trip back from Fort Worth between noon and 12:30 p.m., the HOV lane was closed going to Dallas. But for about 10 miles the lane was open going toward Fort Worth. I counted eight cars in 10 miles using that lane.
Eight cars. Really?
Years of construction to accommodate eight cars? Lanes that charge tolls supposedly to pay for the construction aren’t open all the time? That’s the definition of stupidity.
The new I-30 is horrible. The HOV lanes need to be ripped out and the highway should be made into four open lanes in each direction from downtown Dallas to downtown Fort Worth. And the engineer who designed the road should never be allowed to work in Texas again.
