Was U.S. 131 Construction a Waste of Time?

There were a lot of traffic backups and people getting to work late during the U.S. 131 road construction but was it a waste of time? Some say it's worse now.

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Orange Barrel Blues

Every spring and summer in West Michigan we get the orange barrel blues. Whether you like Governor Gretchen Witmere or not, when she said she was going to "Fix the Damn Roads" she wasn't kidding.

I drive 131 every day on my commute but I didn't have the brunt of the traffic problems since I live 50 minutes north of Grand Rapids. I didn't have any traffic issues until I got to where 96 and 131 cross each other so I only had a few miles of grief. It was a different story for those who live south of downtown Grand Rapids and use 131. Now that the orange barrels are gone many people don't feel anything got done.

Was U.S. 131 Construction a Waste of Time? Some Say Yes

Lollipopmadness3 jumped on Reddit with a thread stating the U.S. 131 construction made things worse. I happen to love the graphic they came up with above.

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As I was sifting through the Reddit thread I noticed people thought U.S. 131 would be smoother after the construction. G3N3Parmesan pointed out that the work being done wasn't resurfacing but was to strengthen roads and bridges. I fell into the same trap thinking it doesn't seem any better now that barrels are gone.

It makes sense to fix the structure of the roads and bridges before resurfacing them. CharcoalGreyWolf pointed out that just patching, and fixing a symptom and not the whole problem and went on to say that why not make us miserable longer to fix the damn roads and not just patch them. I say, "Good Point."

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I think our minds play tricks on us because thoughts that 131 would be smoother are natural when you spend weeks in traffic thinking the roads are being resurfaced. We also get conditioned not to notice some of the rough spots and then when you think those will be fixed and drive on it you will notice the imperfections more. Nonetheless, people feel it's worse and there are lots more comments on this Reddit thread you can check out here and maybe even voice your thoughts.