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Thursday, July 12, 2007

Live Oak Street exit on US-75 Southbound closed till 2009 due to DART Green Line construction

by Laura Evans

Photo by Laura Evans

Access Denied.

The closing of the Live Oak Street exit (284C) on US-75 Southbound has been somewhat of a mystery in this city and in this office for a little while now.

At some point we realized we are, in fact, "reporters," so we took a vote and made someone dig a little deeper. I drew the short straw.

As it turns out, the closure is due to the DART Green Line Construction around the Bryan/Hawkins intersection. According to the DART construction site, two bridges in the area are being removed and the road is being lowered to street level. Therefore, the exit was shut down on June 17 and is not rescheduled to open back up until June 2009.

The left lane of US-75 Southbound has also been shut down starting at the Haskell/Lemmon/Hall exit. A DART official informed me that this lane has been closed off to provide a safety cushion for the Green Line construction site - the Texas Department of Transportation requires a certain distance of space between traffic and construction for precautionary measures. This lane will also not be reopened until June. June . . . of 2009.

From a cat-lover's Flickr

Little known fact: road rage is the number one cause of feline heart failure.

Alright, everyone say it with me now - NOOOOOOOOOOOO (insert profanity of your choice here)!!!!! For those who travel through this area regularly, this adds on a significant amount of time for driver commutes. (It now takes me 20 minutes just to get to the Lemmon exit from Walnut Hill & 75, where it only used to take me about 5 minutes).

DART officials suggest drivers regularly check construction progress on the DART construction site. You can also subscribe to the site to receive construction notices and updates for that area.

To get us through these next two years, allow me to suggest some relaxation techniques to avoid any possible road rage you might experience.

1. Sit or stand in a relaxed postition. (Sitting recommended for drivers)

2. Slowly inhale through your nose, counting to five in your head.

3. Let the air out from your mouth, counting to eight in your head as it leaves your lungs. Rinse and repeat.

Staff
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Anonymous

Alan Cohen Staff

2 years, 4 months ago
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I find it unbelievable that the left lane of Central is closed all the way back to Lemmon (!) because of construction at Live Oak. Absurd.

Gary Cohen Verified

2 years, 4 months ago
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"DART officials suggest drivers regularly check construction progress on the DART construction site."

Considering it's going to take two years to finish, are daily updates really necessary?

"Yes, the lane is still closed."

Pavel Lishin Verified

2 years, 4 months ago
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Well Pavel, maybe it will give you something to do while you're sitting in traffic.

luniz Anonymous

2 years, 4 months ago
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Instead of closing the left lane of Central back up at the Haskell/Lemmon exit, why not move it closer to the Woodall Rodgers exit where a large chunk of Central traffic exits, and avoid this long bottleneck that the present lane closure causes?

bmslaw Anonymous

2 years, 4 months ago
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I live in the neighborhood, and I've yet to see any workers or equipment in the vicinity of the closed lane at this point, so what gives? I'm all for keeping workers safe, but the time lost by thousands of commuters every day should take precedence at this stage in the game.

jenn Anonymous

2 years, 4 months ago
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This is a smart move by Dart. I imagine they'll be randomly closing more lanes to stack traffic up even more. "You're going to start riding Dart one way or the other" must be their new marketing slogan.

-DM

DMBurrows Anonymous

2 years, 4 months ago
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Yes, I can certainly see how creating a "safety cushion" which starts over 1/2 mile before the closed exit, which itself is nearly 1/4 mile before the site of the construction work, will help matters-- NOT!

As already pointed out by bmslaw, moving the beginning of the safety cushion back to the Woodall Rogers exit lanes would eliminate the bottleneck entirely, since a large % of southbound traffic exits using those additional lanes.

Instead, TxDOT has created a murderous 5 mile + traffic jam which stretches past Northwest Highway at times, leading to all sorts of mayhem and wrecks as expressway speed traffic suddenly confronts motionless vehicles without any warning whatsoever.

TxDOT = IDIOTS

tdog10 Anonymous

2 years, 4 months ago
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http://www.theonion.com/content/news_...

DC Anonymous

2 years, 4 months ago
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A couple of people to complain to about this fiasco:

State Senator John Carona Chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee 8080 N. Central Expy. Suite 1440, LB 44 Dallas, TX 75206 (214) 378-5751 FAX: (214) 378-5739

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 600035 Dallas, TX 75360-0035

E-mail him using this form:

http://www.carona.senate.state.tx.us/...

and....

Central Dallas TxDOT Area Office - (214) 320-4400