CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Orange cones, concrete barriers and seemingly endless delays.
Ask anyone who drives on I-277 knows the traffic has been a nightmare lately. Construction and lane closures also make it tough to simply get on and off I-77 around uptown Charlotte.
A viewer named Chris asked NBC Charlotte to find out what's going on with the road work and when it will be done.
"How about fixing I-277 and be done with it? There was nothing wrong in the first place," he wrote.
As part of Wake Up Charlotte's "What's Driving You Crazy," we went to NCDOT with his concerns.
"You never know what you're going to get when you get on there," said one man.
It's become a nuisance for Charlotte drivers and unfortunately, it's not going anywhere for a while. NCDOT says the lane closures are in place as part of a project to improve 22 bridges between 10th Street and I-77 on the John Belk Freeway. They say the concrete barriers will remain in place 24/7 to keep workers safe until they're finished. The $16.3 million project was originally planned to be done by the end of July, but now NCDOT says it'll be the end of the year before it's complete due to weather problems.
"I'm going to avoid it at all costs," said another person.
Which sounds great in theory. Until you realize everyone else has the same idea and secondary roads and side streets quickly get clogged with cars. The end result is even more bumper-to-bumper traffic on roads that aren't designed to handle so much volume.
Potholes, perpetual construction, maybe a terrible intersection. We all have something that bothers us on the roads. Tell Ruby by contacting her at rdurham@wcnc.com or let her know on Facebook or Twitter.