Traffic jam frustrates Mishawaka residents

MISHAWAKA, Ind. - It's time for summer construction! You probably have seen the many roads closed down across our coverage area.

One lane of traffic on Main street has been closed leading to backed-up traffic from Douglas to Indian Ridge. The goal: to freshly pave the roads. The project will be from 7 am to 7 pm and will last until June 18th.

Main Street in Mishawaka is busy on a normal day.

But today... it’s sometimes bumper to bumper... with loud machinery blaring.... and the occasional honk.

Many describing today's backup as

“The construction outside is horrendous," Miranda Critchlaw, a King Gyro employee said.

“It is horrendous. It’s a hectic thing," Troy Adams, one driver said.

“It’s a bunch of chaos. One of the drivers had asphalt stuck to their car," Hunter Knouff, the General Manager at Jimmy Johns said.

“Pretty good right now, a little slow but it’s good," one passerby said.

“It’s been hectic like half-hour wait times from light to light," Jennifer Powell, the Qdoba shift leader said.

"People are sneaking into the intersection when there is backed up traffic," Critchlaw said.

“It’s pretty crazy a lot of people are just running up and down the sides of the roads and taking oncoming traffic. We were coming down the bridge and people were going on the median," Connor Adams said.

“But it’s just part of it. It’s summer construction season," Troy Adams said.

It’s the price you have to pay for freshly paved roads.

Some businesses even benefiting from the bottleneck.

"An increase of traffic on the road and inside here," Powell said. "We’ve been getting steady people coming in because they’re pulling out of the line to wait for it to calm down.”

"I’m hoping it increases our business and not decreases but I hope the construction is over soon," Critchlaw said.

"We have noticed a lot of not many people coming into the shop today but more deliveries though," Knouff, said. "They’re having trouble getting around and it’s causing delivery time to be later than expected."

But is there a better way to fix these roads without the gridlock?

Troy Adams is a former road construction worker and said drivers just need to go with the flow and not make any illegal maneuvers.

"They actually have a plan, as unorganized as it looks with all the equipment moving. There is a plan and they are moving through as best they can. If the traffic moves with them it goes much smoother," he said.

Troy has actually paved on this road earlier in his career. He said that there really isn’t a better way to go about it.

"You got to get your whole crew to switch their body clocks, it’s hard to do that. You are working in the dark. You have an immense amount of infrastructure at the yard, the silo, the plant that’s making the asphalt. There are people there. You’re in the dark over there. It can be done but I imagine it comes with its pitfalls," he said.

Either way, it’s best to just be patient get through the traffic, just plan to leave a few minutes early if this is part of your commute through the 18th.