Some Springfield residents say there is too much construction in Downtown Springfield
foxillinois.com/news/local/some-springfield-r...
foxillinois.comPosted Jun 22, 2023, 3:51 AM UTC
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foxillinois.comCan you imagine what it would be like in a town that's actually growing?
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Houston native here, this article is adorable. (Took me 30 minutes to travel about 5 miles during rush hour back in Houston)
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Years ago the Illinois Times did a survey of people who had moved to Springfield from elsewhere to ask them their favorite thing about Springfield. One person's answer: "Rush minute."
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lol rush hour...
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Are people seriously bitching about TOO MANY IMPROVEMENTS? Jesus Fuck.
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Springfield is an old city. Downtown didn't even get a substantial plumbing upgrade that would help stop excessive flooding in the basements of alot of the large buildings in the area until after the old Y block was demolished. Covid delayed alot of construction a few years ago. Typically it is difficult to do construction in the winter in the midwest due to below freezing temperatures. The city coffers are flooded with unspent Covid relief funds, as well as state and federal grants towards the new transportation hub and high speed rail. All of these factors add up to a shit ton of simultaneous projects. Id rather it gets done now then in 10 years.
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The linked tidbit is a tad old (May 29th) but I honestly kinda brushed it off until today where it really hit me so I thought I'd post it for discussion. Good goddamn, is there a lot of construction and road/lane closures downtown.
You've got the transportation center closures on Jefferson, Madison, and Washington. You've got Horace Mann demolishing historic buildings between 7th and 6th on Washington, narrowing that to a lane or two. Capitol grounds being redone forcing lane closures on Monroe west of 2nd. On top of that, Ameren is going hog-wild tearing up god knows what on 5th and 7th and elsewhere. And I guess some sort of church renovation on Lawrence now that necessitates bringing it down to 1-2 lanes?
It seems like every week I am changing my strategy for commuting to work. I like that things are improving, but dear god, does it really have to be all at once, all at the same time?
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Yes because you can't do much outside construction when it's super cold in the winter.
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It's a lot. I drive through downtown regularly because I live near there. For a while I just took 9th despite the terrible light sequences because that was preferable to all the random and changing construction (also including Horace Mann knocking down some buildings on Washington).
However it's going to be great once it is done! Kind of like the closures of Madison and Jefferson for 14 months. It's a giant pain but once the tracks move, is going to be so much easier to get around.
I think the thing on 7th is in preparation of it converting to 2-way traffic.
But yeah, I've never encountered so much construction all at once time as downtown this summer.
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Not to mention they are also laying fiber downtown as well, which is why 6th street at Monroe was fucked up for a bit
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And yet, one can still get anywhere in Springfield in 15 minutes. Honestly, I'm for it. Progress is great. Let's get it done.
1 of 3 or so lanes are closed for construction on some roads, there’s a 1 minute detour downtown… in the grand scheme of things the construction isn’t an inconvenience, and that’s coming from someone who drives though 3 road constructions to get to work
I just hope the roads come out good!
6th was squeezed to one lane downtown, but yeah it's doable!