Snore No More on Route 434
by Karen Williams - Oviedo Voice - October 14, 2004
The word is out: Bob and his barricades are about to move on. The ordeal by tire is nearly over.
The widening/then narrowing/then widening again of Alafaya Trail is due to be finished soon. No more orange barrels dotting the landscape. No more traffic flow re-configurations by the hour. No more catching up on our knitting and/or sleep at traffic lights. No more yells and tantrums from the work crew when we accidentally drive over some freshly-paved pavement. No more shuddering when a giant piece of VERY HEAVY yellow equipment lurches toward us near Chapman Road. No more dust storms, pavement drop-offs, or playing the which-lane-will-it-be-this-time game.
As this project of many months moseys to completion, the average Seminole driver is left with a number of nagging questions: It took this long because________? Should the road be re-named “Alafaya Trial”? Will my car axles go back to normal? Just exactly who IS this Bob who seems to have a God-awful surplus of barricades, and would he like to share his business profits with me?
As we look forward to a new, spacious, kinder-and-gentler Alafaya Trail, perhaps we’ll appreciate it all the more as a result of the long months of sitting idling by. Perhaps we’ll all be better drivers as a result of learning to dodge the barrels, the construction debris, and those jumping traffic flaggers who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Perhaps getting straight-shot access to Albertson’s, Publix, or one’s very own subdivision will now seem pure delight.
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Copyright 2004, Karen Williams
