[quote]By Lucas Rhamy
Sports Writer
Photo courtesy of The Daily Herald[/quote]

Oh, Naperville. The beautiful suburb of Chicago which graced the top spot on niche.com’s safest city ranking in America this year. The city can probably devote its top notch security rankings to the speed limit slices coming from the plague of construction over the last couple of years.

The massive reconstruction project began in the summer of 2012, and was scheduled to last for approximately three years, ending in the fall of 2015, to be exact. What more could you possibly look forward to this fall? The iPhone 6S came out, football is back, the leaves start to transform, and you can bring out the other half of your wardrobe. However, the first official day of fall was Sept. 23, and Route 59’s overdue completion time is making citizens angrier and more restless by the day. Especially commuters whose pumpkin spiced lattes are cold before the time they get to work. What a shame.

What most people observe and take away from the colonies of orange cones overtaking the streets of Naperville is that they are annoying, terrible, and an overall nuisance to society. However, once the project is officially completed, traffic will be flowing like it has never flown before.

The project is working to perform under six different contracts, consisting of improvements such as additional through lanes, intersection improvements, improved coordination of traffic signals, and perhaps most importantly, the complete reorganization of the I-88 and Route 59 highway interchange. And by complete I mean a full and outright change of design.

The interchange, known as a “diverging diamond,” very nearly adopts the English practices by switching over and driving on the left side of the lane, across nearly the entire interchange, while driving over the bridge crossing the intersection. Although confusing, the organization was designed to help keep traffic jams during rush hour to an absolute minimum. But personally, I think that the only effect that’s going to come from this is an increased driving difficulty, adding to the already high population of bad drivers. For a more in-depth look at the new design, click here. 

Right on schedule, the “diverging diamond” project is completed and open to the public to drive over at their expense.  Although this is a step in the right direction, the interchange still has a long way to go before it’s design can completely be put to the test. Throughout parts of Route 59, specifically between Meridian Parkway  and North Aurora, there is still only one lane available for driving. In the busy rush hour mornings, commuters will be spending more time trying to reach the on-ramp than actually driving on the highway. The ones who can’t take any more of it will even sacrifice their gas to head toward the Winfield or Eola exits in aim to avoid the brutal traffic. Because of the countless delays and confusing patterns, I, and I speak for most citizens of Naperville when I say this, are still going to avoid Route 59 like it’s still a closed road.

In my one and only year of licensed driving, I have never had the privilege to drive down the clean and non-hazardous version of 59. I’ve gotten used to the countless delays, the stop-and-go traffic, and maze of orange that tears through the heart of Naperville. Due to 59’s sheer length and popularity, it is almost inevitable that you will have to drive down it at one point or another. However, by now I have found every single back road, shortcut, and detour that leads to my point of destination without seeing the dreaded cones. So in a way, I can thank the hefty Route 59 reconstruction project. It opened me up to the beauty of lesser-seen Naperville, along with helping me avoid the aggravating route and the possible road rage that comes with it.