Road Constructrion Traffic Woes In Arlington Texas

I have had me another day and it isn't even 5 yet. Today was better than yesterday because I did not go deeper into Fort Worth than my abode, thus I had limited exposure to Fort Worth's Mobile Gestapo. That's a good thing.

Instead I head east and ending up going further east than I'd intended. I was heading to Arlington's Chinatown Hong Kong Market. On the way, like I usually do, I stopped at Veterans Park, intending to have a walkabout. But, last night it rained, thus up went the humidity. I just was not feeling it, did not want to get all wet and sticky, yet one more time. So, I sat on a bench for awhile, like an old man in a park, which I guess I am, then I continued on.

I forgot to mention, I got gas soon after I left here. The price has fallen to $2.12. So, I had to call my mom and tell her I got gas and how much it cost. And the temperature. She was being a bit hotter in her Phoenix zone, than I am here in HOT HUMID Texas.

After getting what I wanted in Hong Kong I continued on to the Dallas Cowboys Wal-Mart Supercenter. Leaving Wal-Mart I headed west on Randol Mill, taking a right on Collins Street. I knew the Collins Street bridge had been removed last week. But, I figured there must be an alternative route to get on the freeway heading west. There was, but it took me 45 minutes.

The sign said "I-30" pointing right, with no mention of W or E. Going right eventually led, without choice, to getting on the freeway, heading east towards Dallas. I was not pleased. After going by Six Flags I exited at the Six Flags exit, looped around to the I-30 overpass that leads to 360. I stayed on the option to get off at Lamar, due to that road heads back west, and a freeway entry, if it had not been destroyed. It hadn't. Sort of.

I followed the freeway entry signs. This began a complicated multi-mile maze of eventually getting past Collins Street, where the trouble had begun, all the way to the new Center Street bridge, which is now totally open, and would have been the easy solution, had I known, and then, finally, on the freeway, heading west, back here within 10 minutes.

At one point, prior to getting back to Collins Street, there was an, at least, 15 minute holdup, where all came to a stop, that backup must have gone miles. Lucky for me, I was near the front.

The picture on the left is looking west, sitting and waiting. That is the new Collins Street bridge in the slight distance. The picture at the top is looking west towards the 360 overpass, with Six Flags on the other side.

Now, what I don't get, expert road designer that I am, at the point where northbound Collins Street comes to an end, due to the missing bridge and you only have an option to go east, why not turn the frontage road between Center Street and Collins Street into a 2-way? I think, could I have taken a left, rather than a right, I would have been back westbound on I-30 in a couple minutes, rather than a half hour or more.

It's very perplexing. Luckily Six Flags gets very few out of state visitors, so there likely will be few out of state reports about what a mess this is. Can't be good for the local tourism, though.