Over the last couple of months, road closures and roadwork have affected drivers in our city, making it difficult for them to commute to school and work. 

With the unexpected changes, people have had to rethink their routes and wake-up times, which, although minimal, can completely disrupt a person’s daily routine and schedule.

The intersection of  Highway 5 and Melissa Rd. is one of the roads that has affected many people. Highway 5 has had construction on it for a couple of years now, and they are slowly working their way down it. Many different parts have been affected by this construction. Both sides of the road have been shortened to a single lane which is affecting how the traffic piles up. This is one of the main roads that students take to get to school.

Junior Jessica Goodman has had to make many changes from last year because of the road work. 

“I have to pick up my friends and take them to school,” Jessica said. “With the traffic on the road, we have almost been late multiple times, and I don’t want to lose any more sleep from having to wake up earlier.”

This is just one of the students who has been affected by the changes, and not only does that affect students who drive to school, it also affects some parents have to take their kids to school and then go to work.

Picture from Google Earth

This strip of road is one of the most used to get to the highway. You can see not only people from Melissa using it, but also people coming from Blue Ridge, too. Highway 75 is the main transportation route that people from North Texas use. From around 7:30 to 8:00, Google Maps says that it takes up to 20 minutes to travel 1.68 miles to get to the highway. Before the changes to the road, it would take around 10 minutes to travel down this road, even with traffic. With this added time, adults traveling to work have had to wake up earlier, which has changed normal routines.

The road closures have not only affected the students of Melissa. It has also affected the parents and adults trying to get to the highway to go to work. 

 IT Technician Austin Davis has had difficulties while trying to get to work with the traffic caused by the road work.

“They have changed Melissa Road to a two-way road on the westbound side,” Davis said. “It has completely changed the flow of traffic and has added about twenty minutes to my driving time.”

Davis is just one of the many adults affected by just one of the roads that has work being done on it. Many other roads like highway 5 and other parts of Melissa Road, are having work done on them, which extends the travel time for many people.