"Emergency" Roadwork

[Mergingtraffic]

What do you think of when you hear "Emergency Roadwork?"  To me it means a sink hole opened up in the road or a mudslide affecting a lane or something.  In CT, apparently it means milling.....during Friday afternoon rush hour.....3 of the 4 lanes closed.

This couldn't wait until 11pm?
Any issues like this in your area?

Also of note:  This area has been bad for a few weeks now as they have VMS signs saying "Rough Road Ahead."  It just seems odd that it's been like that for a few weeks but they just had to do something at the height of Friday rush hour.  It couldn't wait until night or next week?

http://www.wfsb.com/story/24851625/emergency-road-work-snarling-traffic

ROCKY HILL, CT (WFSB) -
Connecticut drivers are being advised to avoid a portion of interstate 91 in the Rocky Hill/Wethersfield area while state crews perform emergency road work on a stretch of the highway.


The Department of Transportation said it had to block off three lanes between exits 24 and 25 on the northbound side.

DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick said it was called emergency road work because it was not planned. He also said it was not pothole repair.


"They are milling off the asphalt to get to a better layer," he told Eyewitness News. "They are just going to remove asphalt, but cannot repave it right now. This is only Northbound."

Nursick said the milling is to help repair the damaged surface and make it more drivable. The milling is expected to be completed between 4:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Friday.

There are no asphalt plants open, so the repaving of that area will occur around the end of March or early April.


The emergency road work has created a traffic backup that could be seen on DOT cameras.

You can detour the road work by getting off I-91 at Exit 23, then following Route 3 back to I-91 by the Putnam Bridge. People are advised not to get off at Exit 24 because there is more traffic on the Silas Deane Highway.

Nursick said the work was about 2,500 feet long.

Copyright 2014 WFSB (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

[jeffandnicole]

1 1/2 miles of lane work isn't an emergency.

Hmmmm...and the last day of the month too?  Coincidence?

[theline]

So why didn't the reporter ask what the emergency was? He (she?) tells us what it's not.

In northern Indiana, I've seen emergency milling take place in winter because of pavement buckling due to freeze-thaw cycles. If it's not milled down, it's hell on suspensions systems and maybe even a safety hazard. The reporter should have asked.

[Alps]

It sounds like this was due to there being so many potholes that they couldn't patch them.

[hbelkins]

And they may have had to declare an emergency to get the repairs done that fast, if they weren't scheduled. My guess is the milling was done by contractors, not by the state agency.

[GaryV]

It probably comes out of a different budget line item.

[jemacedo9]

I-490 west of Rochester has a 2-mile stretch (near Exit 3) where the right lane is closed, complete with work-zone signs and barrels, because of a ton of potholes.  It looks like the lane has been closed for at least a few days, and it doesn't look like any work has been done.

In the city of Rochester, there was a news item showing that the city milled one of the arterials that had a ton of potholes, saying that the potholes were very bad and they weren't staying filled - it's been too cold.  So, the city milled the street for now to make it level, and then will re-pave the street in the spring.

[vdeane]

Those potholes have been around for a lot longer.  When I traveled on that stretch in December there were signs advising motorists to avoid the right lane.

The local Price Chopper have a very large pothole in the parking lot.  Thankfully it (and the other potholes in the lot) is currently filled with packed snow.

[hm insulators]

You people back east and in the Midwest have had a nasty winter this year!

[Jardine]

The 'ultimate' emergency roadwork was the amazing 33 day rebuild of Interstate 680 from the Mormon Bridges to Interstate 29 in the fall of 2011.

I don't know if PCI (one of the I-680 contractors) could do the work that far out of their territory, but whom ever IS doing the work might want to throw some money their way and hire them as consultants for the milling work.