Crews close Country Club Road stretch in both directions
Construction crews closed Country Club Road between Love Road and Doniphan Drive in both directions Monday.
Detours run along Love Road, Lindbergh Avenue and Memory Lane, as well as McNutt, Artcraft and Upper Valley roads.
Workers closed the stretch after finding buried telephone lines while renovating Country Club Road.
“This morning everything was a little bit kind of like scrambled eggs, and nobody quite understood what to do,” said resident Cathy Alanen.
Local traffic has to enter Country Club Road on the west side of the closure near Love Road. Neighbors are technically not allowed to enter through Doniphan.
“I’ve got a four-wheel drive,” said resident Reed Leverton. “Today I came right through on Mesa and Country Club, just because I was able to go around and kind of go over the railroad bed.”
The bus driver who picks up Alanen’s daughter, Mia, for her rehabilitation program couldn’t get through via Doniphan.
“I said, ‘Well, hang on, I’ll just drive her over to the Walgreens,'” Alanen said she told the bus driver. “And I put her on the bus over there.”
Reed Leverton said the city likely didn’t need to close the road entirely when it installed the telephone lines and shouldn’t have to do it now.
“I think it’s more of a convenience item at this point for the contractor,” Leverton said. “And it’s an inconvenience item for us.”
But Pam Smith said the traffic isn’t nearly so bad as when the westbound lane was open. Still, the pet-sitter said her clients can no longer find her home.
“As long as this is gonna go on, it’s gonna be very time-consuming, and it’s gonna cause a lot of people a lot of problems, I’m sure, in the long run,” Smith said. “But in the long run again, it’s gonna be nice once they finish it.”
A city spokesman said the city is monitoring traffic-light efficiency at detour spots and is even considering adding an extra right-turn lane at the corner of Upper Valley and Artcraft roads.
The Doniphan to Love closure will last until March 2014. The entire $12 million Country Club Road revamping will wrap February 2015.
