Construction Season

It's an interesting time to live in Spokane.  There's construction everywhere.  In my neighborhood the roundabout is being torn up and unspecified subterranean work is underway.  A Street is closed to through traffic and my normal bus stop has been uprooted and relocated to Alberta, denoted by a sandwich sign that reads "temporary bus stop".

On my way to work, a lane is blocked off and all traffic is forcibly merged into a single snaking line of vehicles.

Downtown on the eastbound side of the Plaza, I disembark from the #33 and hustle to the corner past a gated section of sidewalk.  I board the #90 and almost halfway to my destination, we're diverted onto a bouncing-jouncing detour.

In the evening, after work is done and I'm heading home, my route takes me again to the Plaza where there is more construction.  The entire set of westbound zones is fenced and buses stop directly in traffic loading and unloading passengers.  The driver yells at us, "I said exit through the front doors - not the back!"  I hasten to find where my zone for the #20 has gone.  It's there.  It's well marked.  I won't be left behind.

Indeed, all of Spokane is under construction.  Near my office three new commercial buildings rise from the dusty earth, cranes lifting steel to form their skeletons.  Raking, grating, pounding join the tympany roar of the train to create an orchestra of growth.  Out in front, the entire street has been dug up for months as crews repair underground utilities, fix the roadway's foundation.  I understand that they will build new sidewalks, repave, create turn lanes and so on.  I read that they will build a new bus stop with a bench and shelter near the Gateway Bridge.  So, I look forward to that.