Sorry, we’re under construction
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4 reasons why we should give construction designated time slots.
In Ottawa, there’s one thing you can rely on, construction. With the constant road closures, detours and potholes, 15-minute car rides turn into 30 minutes. While I sit in traffic, I always think to myself, what would the road conditions look like if we gave construction work a certain time to do their work without disturbing regular road flow? After some thinking, I’ve come up with four reasons as to why construction work should be given designated time slots during the year.
One—Less traffic = Smoother circulation.
There always seems to be traffic around construction zones. The roads in construction zones are always either blocked off completely, narrowed down and detoured. Currently, construction workers work parallel to regular business hours, meaning they are always on the roads during rush hour. Already, we have regular rush hour traffic, but on top of that we also have the lane reductions on the highways and the blocked streets in the city. This just multiplies the intensity of traffic. My partner once told me that his usual 45-minute commute to work took him an hour and a half, one morning. If only they could wait till after rush hour to start blocking off roads that maybe we would be late to work so often?
Two—Quicker project completion timelines.
I wonder if the pressure of a shorter completion timeline could help fasten the building process. I’m not talking about shorter as in, short to the point that it will give plenty of room for errors and bad construction, but a shorter timeline to the point that workers are keeping roads blocked off longer than necessary. I have noticed many times in Ottawa, roads that are blocked off with no construction work happening at all. If we were to put a little more rush on timelines, we would be able to have less labour cost and more open roads.
Three—Coordination.
One thing about Ottawa’s construction is if you stumble across a construction zone, you will stumble across another zone less than a block away. It’s as if every corner in the city has some sort of construction going on. There should be a time and place for construction. If we schedule, let’s say, construction on the highway. If we focused solely on completing the highway construction all at once, then we could finish faster. And while it’s in construction, all the city streets are free from any obstruction, leaving a good road flow and happier commuters.
Four—Quality life improvements for city residence.
Construction comes with all sorts of loud obnoxious sounds whether we like it or not. For residence nearby, hearing construction noise all year round is not unusual. Not only do they deal with the sound, but also the debris! This can affect your sleep and normal routine. If construction had its own time slots throughout the year, residence would be able to adjust their lives around the work being done. But at the moment, construction is unpredictable, one day you could be living quietly and the next day there’s sudden construction right outside your window.
It’s a lot easier said than done. Fixing a time slot for construction work takes time, money and effort. While understanding that this is part of growth within a city, it is still causing us frustrations. With these four reasons, maybe we can give ourselves some peace of mind and give construction the time when the time is given. Not every single day.
Author Bio
Allison Thompson is a Professional Writing student at Ottawa’s Algonquin College. She loves films and videos, her favourite being ‘Garden State'.’ By Zach Braff. She loves the morning air and sparkly light catchers. Her biggest muse is her Aussie named Mittens. Allison writes with great humour and kindness, making sure her readers feel safe and included in her work.
