For the past year and a half, construction near Cienega has been occuring and now with multiple instances of trains slowing traffic, delays are troubling both students and bus drivers.
With the construction and train delays occuring more and more, students are arriving late to school. Already this year there have been a number of delays from trains. When a train stops on the track, it forces bus drivers or students to make a complete detour.
“I hate catching them on the tracks!” said junior Mary Versluis.
So many people, whether it is student drivers, students on buses, or teachers headed for Cienega are forced to turn around and go back down Houghton, making the traffic unbearable.
Student drivers often find themselves in quite a predicament.
“I get here early for zero hour. But it does slow things down on Fridays, when there isn’t a zero hour,” said Versluis.
Bus drivers, whose major job is getting students to school, also get stuck in this mob of hurried, frustrated people.
“Well the trains are a real hindrance. They cause a lot of backup, sometimes to Camino Loma Alta. Kids are late to school and we are late to our routes,” said Lydia Kell.
This causes multiple buses to be late. When a large number of students are tardy to class, it postpones teachers from taking attendance.
“I don’t think it really interrupts mine. It’s always the same people who are late,” Mr. Chokel, a geometry teacher, said.
Another issue slowing traffic, is the construction by Old Vail Middle School that has taken place for the last year and a half.
A building complex containing stores, is in the process of being built on the land right above Del Lago and adjacent to the housing community.
“Basically there will be two parcels: a larger one and a smaller one. The large one will have a Safeway shopping center with a Chase Bank and a McDonald’s, and the larger one will have a Walgreen’s and a Wells Fargo,” said Brian Harpel leader of the Harpel Company.
The construction has also influenced the direction in which way the traffic is going.
This affects the once smooth flow of traffic.
Now, on some days, construction workers have to direct cars through the mess of cones and construction sites.
Scott Rafferty is the manager of Granite Construction Company, which is
performing the construction on Mary Ann Cleveland road. Rafferty said the “new alignment” of the road is expected to be done at the end of the year.
When asked how the construction process was going, Rafferty responded “It’s pretty good. It’s making good progress so far.”
The estimated completion date for the new shopping center is early March.