alleymon Okay, I’ve had enough already. I’m ready for my road (Ortega Highway) to be open again. Before the closure, I had a 1 hour drive to work. Which, by many peoples standards is already pretty lengthy. I cope by listening to audio books from Audible.com on my iPod. Immediately after the closure, then estimated to be up to 4 days, I decided to try the north route into Orange County. That’s the I-15 north to SR-91 west to I-55 south to I-5 south. This circuitious route is approximately 65 miles (Ortega is 45). I need to be at work at 7:00 am and was used to leaving at 6:00 am. So I figured if I left at 5 am I would be OK. WRONG!!! It took 2 and a half hours to traverse the 65 miles and lots of stress from stop and go traffic. The drive home took 3 hours. So total drive time for day one was 5 1/2 hours + the 8 hour work day.
Three more days of this would surely drive me mad… Little did I know the time would be extended a week… Then two. I decided to try the southern route. I knew the distance was greater, but maybe, just maybe, it would take less time. Amazingly, it did. The total distance, one way, is 82.5 miles. The total time when leaving at 5:00 am is 1 hour and 45 minutes, give or take 15 minutes. The drive home is a bit more busy and takes 2 – 2 1/2 hours. Not great, but much better than the 5 1/2 hours the other way. I save about an hour and a half. But still, 4 hours or so of drive time a day is taking it’s toll. I’m exausted by the time I get home. I wake up at 4:30 am (Showering the night before to save time) and stare in disbelief at the alarm clock. How can it be 4:30 am already. My head just hit the pillow!!!
So the newest best estimate for completion of repairs on Ortega, is Thursday the 27th, but I’ve also heard estimates of Saturday the 29th, so anyone’s guess is as good. I took last Friday off and I’m going to try and take this Friday off as well. You see, by Friday I’m exausted before I leave the house in the morning.
The worst part is there are thousands of people who have the same story. Or even worse… I read yesterday that there is a lady who works at Quest Diagnostic, just east of the closure, who lives just west of the closure. She used to have a 15 – 20 minute drive to work. This drive now takes 3 hours or more. My heart goes out to this one and all the others in our situation.
The day they open up Our Road (Ortega Hwy), there will be smiling faces driving to work. In a few weeks it will be all but forgotten and that’s a shame because it’s times like these that show how badly we need another corridor into the OC. Traffic is only going to get worse until something is done and after the decision is made to start work on a new road it will take years to build.