Complete closure for construction, or partial closure for months?

[bzakharin]

If they're going to close an entire direction of freeway and it's not wide enough to accommodate two-way traffic on one side, why don't they route peak traffic onto the open side during rush hour?

[jeffandnicole]

If they're going to close an entire direction of freeway and it's not wide enough to accommodate two-way traffic on one side, why don't they route peak traffic onto the open side during rush hour?

I know it was discussed as an idea, but I don't think I read why the idea was nixed completely. 

The traffic volumes are probably fairly high going in both directions during rush hours.  And the road would need to be closed entirely during the switchovers, so you lose 100% of capacity during that time.  One of the detour routes involves the NJ Turnpike Hudson Bay extension, and they are utilizing the shoulder EB (towards NYC) during both rush hours, which stands to reason that traffic flow towards NYC is still heavy enough in the afternoon that the shoulder reconstruction would have needed to be done anyway.

From a cost standpoint, the detours only needed to be done with one direction in mind, not 2, so it made that a bit cheaper. 

[froggie]

About two years ago, I-20/59 was shut down in Bessemer between Academy Drive (Exit 108) and 18th & 19th Streets (Exit 112).  Again, work was done in one direction and then the other.  Detours for this project were more problematic, since it there were no interstate routes to divert the detoured traffic to.  Instead, traffic was diverted onto Academy Drive, 9th Avenue (US 11), and the one-way couplet of 18th and 19th Streets.  Congestion along the detour was epic.  By my count there are least nine traffic lights along the detour route, maybe more.

I wouldn't say there were "no interstate routes to divert detoured traffic".  Perhaps no direct or semi-direct routes, but there was still I-459.  As I recall, traffic was highly encouraged to use I-459 as an alternative during that roadwork.

As long as you have 3 lanes with good shoulders in each direction, there is no need to have traffic crossing over anymore, so long as you have ample space for two-lanes of traffic in each direction.  I'd much rather see both carriageways being worked on one-half at a time for two seasons than to have both directions of traffic sharing a single carriageway.

Although the latter works much better for contractors...fewer requirements for traffic control so they have more space to work with.  And the result for taxpayers is a project completed faster and for less cost.