Government Waste and Stupidity

[MikeBjerum]

When I start discussing government waste and high taxation, many people will tell me we are under taxed, and that is why our infrastructure is so bad.  First, we are now residents of Illinois - Not Chicago or Cook County, but Will County on the SW side.  This state, and especially this region of the state, are corrupt and union controlled.  Check out the road project that is going to give me a stroke before it is completed.

http://www.romeoville.org/1000/I-55-Weber-Road-Interchange#:~:text=The%20overall%20project%20involves%20adding,wraps%20up%20in%20early%202022.

Check out the part of the project from Normantown south to 135th.  We live just off Normantown a mile east of this interchange, and I use this interchange every day.  In the end it will be good, but for three years it has been under construction.

As I have watched this the plan is to make the four lane Weber Road into a six lane.  First they removed the medians and pushed all four lanes to the southbound lanes.  This involved widening some intersections to create the needed turn lanes.

Next they rebuilt and widened the northbound lanes, including all new infrastructure under the roadway (utilities and storm water management), and they poured a full depth reinforced concrete roadway.

All traffic was then diverted to the northbound lanes, and they did the same to the southbound lanes.  Strangely, they grades of the two roadways did not match.  Northbound is as much as three feet lower in stretches, and at the intersections all of Weber is the same, but they required changes to the elevation of the crossing roads.

Between Christmas and New Year's all traffic was switched to the southbound lanes.

Yesterday I was going south on Weber (first time in daylight) and was shocked.  They have completely torn up the 10 1/4" concrete road surface, are pushing all of the aggregate base to the sides, and are digging up many sections.  Several loads of concrete pipe and manhole connectors have been stock piled (this is almost as much as was done during the first phase).

The project was let on March 9, 2018, we moved here on April 10, 2018, and the construction had already started.  They are now saying the completion has been moved from August 6, 2021 to January 10, 2022.

Over $20 million!  How much is due to waste of building and destroying a road before building the final road?  And, will there be any penalties for late completion?

Beyond this waste I have already listed, these clowns don't work.  I leave the house and go through the project at 0500, and I return at 1545 +/-.  I have never seen any equipment moving material, and the only workers I have seen have been in the afternoon - Packing up and leaving.  If I run to the drug store, I will sometimes see a fuel truck fueling and lubing the equipment.  I have worked construction, I have hired construction, and I have farmed.  What happened to sun up to sun down when the sun shines?  Get the job done, collect the pay, and move on.