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This looks incredible. I am not sure we could of asked for better.

 

I hope they do the green space just like they have it here or better. I always liked 288 because of the green. They removed all the trees for the project, and I really want some plantings to replace them.

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Like @ekdrm2d1 posted, they have the pillars up for the Southermore bridge, and they have been working on putting together the bridge since last week. They have been working at night though, like post 9pm, so I wasn't able to get a picture of them in action since I've always been on the feeder. They are about a third of the way through connecting the pillars with the bridge, seems like they are really getting after it. 

 

This would be a massive addition for both sides of that neighborhood. Currently, you have to walk across the skinny median on Binz if you want to cross in either direction. Also, there are a few newer stores on Southmore (like Cupcake Kitchen) that will probably appreciate the increased traffic. 

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Southmore bridge has the middle portion of the bridge linked from one side to the other side (car portion). They are working on installing the outer lanes of the bridge right now (walkway). They've also torn up half the feeder on both sides, taking away one of the two lanes, to install the support and started to bring in plants that they are trying to...plant. 

 

For now, it seems like they aren't forgetting that 288 has always had trees/plants along the highway.

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The third lane on south loop westbound has been closed for over a year and a half. The Eastbound side of south loop has had all three lanes open over that same time frame. There is no reason for the westbound side to be limited to two lanes; there hasn't been any work going on over there in months. At this point I just assume that someone forgot to open that lane back up. Honestly, how much longer is that third westbound lane going to stay closed? It's getting ridiculous - 15 minutes of extra commute time, every single day of the week, for how many thousands of drivers? For a lane that doesn't need to be closed??

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7 hours ago, Burt-Macklin said:

The third lane on south loop westbound has been closed for over a year and a half. The Eastbound side of south loop has had all three lanes open over that same time frame. There is no reason for the westbound side to be limited to two lanes; there hasn't been any work going on over there in months. At this point I just assume that someone forgot to open that lane back up. Honestly, how much longer is that third westbound lane going to stay closed? It's getting ridiculous - 15 minutes of extra commute time, every single day of the week, for how many thousands of drivers? For a lane that doesn't need to be closed??

 

Two questions.  (1) doesn't the South Loop have at least four lanes?  (2) in which segment of the South Loop have you found the third lane to be closed for more than a year?

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On ‎2‎/‎2‎/‎2020 at 1:10 AM, Burt-Macklin said:

The third lane on south loop westbound has been closed for over a year and a half. The Eastbound side of south loop has had all three lanes open over that same time frame. There is no reason for the westbound side to be limited to two lanes; there hasn't been any work going on over there in months. At this point I just assume that someone forgot to open that lane back up. Honestly, how much longer is that third westbound lane going to stay closed? It's getting ridiculous - 15 minutes of extra commute time, every single day of the week, for how many thousands of drivers? For a lane that doesn't need to be closed??

 

It doesn't even seem like they've started building the new westbound span of 610. I don't know how this project is going to be done in 3/4 of a year like the last projection I saw (3rd quarter 2020). Or is 3rd quarter only when the 288 stuff is going to be finished... meaning that the 610 work is even later?

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59 minutes ago, DNAguy said:

 

It doesn't even seem like they've started building the new westbound span of 610. I don't know how this project is going to be done in 3/4 of a year like the last projection I saw (3rd quarter 2020). Or is 3rd quarter only when the 288 stuff is going to be finished... meaning that the 610 work is even later?

 

I'm at the point where I'm wondering if they checks just haven't cleared the GC's because they have the hallmarks of the type of projects I've been around where funding comes in spurts. Then when funding does come, they throw everyone at it as fast as they can generating unneeded overtime bills. You'll see people working late night/overtime and then nothing for a month in good weather. Lol, and people think i-45 is going to be done in 5 years or whatever. 

 

The crazy part is that decent portions of 288 has been done for a while, they just can't tie everything together. 

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1 hour ago, X.R. said:

 

I'm at the point where I'm wondering if they checks just haven't cleared the GC's because they have the hallmarks of the type of projects I've been around where funding comes in spurts. Then when funding does come, they throw everyone at it as fast as they can generating unneeded overtime bills. You'll see people working late night/overtime and then nothing for a month in good weather. Lol, and people think i-45 is going to be done in 5 years or whatever. 

 

The crazy part is that decent portions of 288 has been done for a while, they just can't tie everything together. 

 

This is a problem with Low-Bid instead of going with "best-bid". The government is mandated to go with the lowest bid, but that doesn't always mean that its the best contractor for the job, and road jobs tend to attract some of the worst because many think of these jobs as one big piggy bank that they can just keep punching, and they will elongate their schedules, so they can keep the dough coming (which is opposite for a private job where time is money). This of course happens in the private sector, but you can only get so far, and word in this industry travels fast. They just get lazy on these kinds of jobs after awhile, and don't allocate or spend resources properly, or at least worst than the private sector. I'm wondering if the same thing happened on the 290 job because at one point the Contractor just sat on his butt for months refusing to do work, and then they had to rebid the job. If you want to see a real joke of a road job then take a trip on Richmond which was redone in patches and in the most illogical way and time consuming a way as possible, and to throw the cherry on the  s h i t  sundae it also looks terrible as well.

Edited by Luminare
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1 hour ago, Luminare said:

 

This is a problem with Low-Bid instead of going with "best-bid". The government is mandated to go with the lowest bid, but that doesn't always mean that its the best contractor for the job, and road jobs tend to attract some of the worst because many think of these jobs as one big piggy bank that they can just keep punching, and they will elongate their schedules, so they can keep the dough coming (which is opposite for a private job where time is money). This of course happens in the private sector, but you can only get so far, and word in this industry travels fast. They just get lazy on these kinds of jobs after awhile, and don't allocate or spend resources properly, or at least worst than the private sector. I'm wondering if the same thing happened on the 290 job because at one point the Contractor just sat on his butt for months refusing to do work, and then they had to rebid the job. If you want to see a real joke of a road job then take a trip on Richmond which was redone in patches and in the most illogical way and time consuming a way as possible, and to throw the cherry on the  s h i t  sundae it also looks terrible as well.

 

FWIW, the 288 tollway project is not being built by the government.  It's being designed, built and operated by a private company.

 

Agree wholeheartedly with the comments on the Richmond work.

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Every time I ride that connector I think about how they could have been making money on that portion of 288 for the past year, since that technically is the toll portion. But they are so seemingly unorganized I'm sure they haven't met some percentage-of-roadwork-finished criteria to trigger their ability to turn on the EZ tag scanners that have already been partially installed (according to a friend on the construction crews). 

 

My favorite thing is that its clear they are also simultaneously supposed to be landscaping those green spaces since you can see they have started to break up some concrete and in some areas plant some plants but even that is done in splotches and not in sync the road construction. What a weird mess. 

Edited by X.R.
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