Progress is progress, so they say. But it doesn’t always feel that way when you’re stuck in construction traffic for half an hour.
Such is life, or will be our collective lives, now that a giant infrastructure bill has passed both chambers of the U.S. Congress, and will be signed into law on Monday. Among other elements, there will be plenty of money to go around for just about everything related to modes of transportation, including the land and water surrounding them.
One big component, of course, is the repair and construction of roads and bridges, with which Oklahomans are all too familiar. If you’re like me, you encounter at least two areas of major, ongoing road work on any given day. At this point “perpetual, highly inconvenient road work” might as well be codified into the State Constitution.
Do good things eventually come from these construction sites? Yes, and America has neglected its infrastructure needs for years. But I have to wonder how much time I have spent sitting in traffic because a highway has been narrowed to one lane for months on end. If I weigh that against the use of the road once the project is complete, I feel less excitement for the new section of highway — which sometimes seems like it is immediately under construction again only a year or so later.
Perhaps with the amounts of money that are reported to be available from this federal infrastructure bill, things will go more smoothly in the future. Alternatively, it may just mean there will be several more miles of traffic cones at which we can all stare.
Past Sundaze comics
Squeegee your third eye for the new congressional map
Zuckerberg’s Meta description previews new nightmare
‘Stop trying to figure out a way to retrofit the old jail’
Edmond voters say: Not in the backyard of my park
QuikTrip in OKC means delicious competition
Oklahomans sniffle through invasion of the allergens
Big bet: Restarting the conversation on sportsbook
Sick and tired of summer each September
Waiting for our old buddy, Personal Responsibility
Finally burger time? In-N-Out should be in OKC
The delta variant is getting a little too trendy
Git along little dogies: It’s SEC or bust
California fires bring the hazy days of summer to OKC
Western lows: The unclear motivations of Western Heights board members
Despite housing prices, more mosquitoes moving in
Pizza and other strange things are afoot at the Circle K
Canoo tax incentives more elusive than great blue whale
Where is the beef? Where is the receipt?
‘The COVID 19’ lingers around the waistband
The complex puzzle of OU’s Cross Village dorms
Sonic seltzer: The Oklahoma collaboration we didn’t know we needed
