David CookIt is rush hour Friday and I’m leaving downtown and headed north into the heart of Chattanooga road construction: across the Olgiati Bridge, up the road dividing what’s left of Stringer’s Ridge, and onto the exit ramp toward Red Bank and Signal Mountain.
Give me Seabiscuit and we cover this in 10 minutes, 12 tops. But in my car, surrounded by all of you in your cars, traveling these three miles takes, oh how shall we say this, longer.
We Americans are built for speed — Apollo 11, Pony Express, gig cities — not traffic jams. I cuss. Itch. Fiddle. My impatience is impatient.
Earlier in the day, I spoke with Jennifer Flynn, Tennessee’s Department of Transportation spokeswoman. It left me with two competing thoughts: it will all be worth it in the end, and things will get worse before they get better.
5:30 p.m., approaching AT&T Field: work began on the project 769 days ago — on Jan. 17, 2012 — and is expected to end 364 days from today.