Oh the joys of construction. Getting to school can be a hassle enough without having to worry about traffic and construction delaying your route. When school started there were three different construction projects going on around Millard South High School. The first project is on 144th street from Harrison to Q is down to one lane for each side of traffic due to an ongoing project of redoing that section of 144th St. This project has been going on since the middle of June and hopefully has an end sometime soon. One major issue with this patch of construction is there is no left turn onto stony brook so any traffic coming from the south must go either to U Street or Q Street. The second project that was going on was construction on Q St, short patches of Q were blocked off so that the concrete could be repaired which caused the traffic there to get very jammed as Q St leads to one of the two entrances to our school. The last but most certainly not least construction project was the bridge above the railroad tracks on 168th Street between Harrison and Giles was also being fixed. While that bridge was being fixed a lot of traffic was forced down 156th Street which leads to Stony Brook and Q Street. Since all of these projects were going on at the same time it made traffic very difficult to get through.
A popular way many students took was Giles road to 156th Street and then to Stony Brook. One problem with this route was it has been very backed up because of the construction on Q street and on the bridge down 168th street. Another way a few students took was 144th over to Harrison street then to 147th onto stony brook.
If drivers decided to wait through the traffic past Harrison on 144th, since there is no left turn onto Stony Brook, drivers would have to either turn onto U street or go up to Q street. If drivers take U Street it will take you to 147th Street which will lead to either Stony Brook to the left or the east parking lot and Q Street to the right. As we have been getting into the 3rd and 4th week of school the construction on 168th Street and Q Street has been finished so traffic has been moving much smoother. As of now the construction on 144th Street still remains and there is still no left turn onto Stony Brook by Hy-vee down the road from Millard South.
According to a recent poll that was taken not only are students affected by traffic when coming to school but also leaving school too, stated in the poll results many students are late to work due to the traffic after school.
Senior Elija Daffer states “It has made it harder to get into the parking lot and in school on time.”
Senior Ella Langseth says “It has increased my time by 20 minutes when driving to school.” Many might not think that leaving even a few minutes earlier would matter but
Junior Chloe Cullinane states “It sucks if you dont leave at a reasonable time even 10 minutes is a big difference some mornings.”
As of now the traffic on 144th Street has been more backed up coming into week 5 of school which causes even more of a delay and more chance of students being late on a daily basis. Hopefully, for the sake of students trying to get to school and other drivers on their commute the construction will be coming to an end sometime soon. Many are ready to get back to a normal routine which means not having to wake up earlier or drive a completely different route to school.
