Highway Mess On Interstate 40

Above, it took me over an hour to reach Jerry's Cafe yesterday. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

There's been some road work about ten miles west of Jamestown on Interstate 40 on the westbound side.

For the past three days, I've been seeing vehicles backed up at a standstill in those lanes. I kept watch yesterday to see how the westbound lanes were moving. From home, they seemed to be going normally.

At 1:00, I decided to head in to Gallup for my usual Friday dinner at Jerry's Cafe. Well, I got on the freeway and it moved okay until I got to Iyanbito exit, then it was a standstill. 

It traffic was barely crawling from that point on. I saw vehicles (cars, tractor trailers) exiting at Iyanbito to take Route 66 in. Apparently, those people were unaware that there is also major bridge roadwork on Route 66 at the road to Red Rock Park. Route 66 is closed at that point. They would have to turn around and get back on Interstate 40 at the McGaffey exit several miles back. We effectively have no alternative route to Gallup. 

It took me about an hour to reach the first Gallup exit. It was a good thing that I left home 45 minutes earlier as I arrived at Jerry's Cafe about 2:15. I've been reading that on average it take an hour, sometimes two hours, to get to Gallup. Whoever planned this was totally incompetent!

Hopefully, the road will be okay this morning as we have to go to Grandpa's Grill in Gallup for our usual breakfast. I was told that there no roadwork will take place on Saturday. 

Fingers crossed!