Last Thursday night, leaving the hospital after listening to an interesting talk by Dr. Galen Mills about using a robot for knee surgeries, I drove down Tower Boulevard to U.S. Highway 14A, expecting to cruise around 45 mph all the way to Ralston, down an avenue of traffic cones. 

Instead, incredibly, there were no cones in the roadway and before long I was driving up to the 70 mph sign — uncovered — and throwing my little Ranger into fifth gear for the ride to Ralston. 

As someone who lives a bit west of Ralston on U.S. Highway 14A, I’ve grumbled plenty about how much longer my commute has become this year due to the large construction project on the highway from the edge of Ralston to Cheyenne Street. 

I know I’m not alone, and even if you don’t live out that way, grocery shopping has been a pain at times at both our major grocery stores which have been affected by the closures. 

Nobody likes to be delayed, and I’m not unique in that regard. 

However, as I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, as the multi-million dollar WYDOT project nears its end-of-October completion date, I’ve come to appreciate how nice it’ll be to have a nice new surface, new sidewalks which make my frequent walks to Blair's for a snack much more pleasant, and even a new Albertsons entrance to help with traffic flow. 

I am also very happy with how contractor Mountain Construction has handled the work and the fact that work is moving along just fine — we can thank the weather as well for that — meaning we can be hopeful work will actually be done, or close to it, around the time kids are running around the downtown searching for candy during Powelloween. 

WYDOT is also due a thank you for its work on planning the project and letting affected business owners know ahead of time how they would be impacted. We at the paper have heard very few concerns about how the work has gone, which reminds me somewhat of a project years earlier to resurface Sheridan Avenue in downtown Cody, which caused serious concern from business owners ahead of time. But in the same way as in this project, WYDOT representatives were communicative and were able to quell many of the frustrations. 

The county commissioners also deserve thanks for allowing Mountain Construction to set up its hot mix plant right alongside the highway just west of Ralston, which has enabled them to more quickly put on new pavement. 

This project has been a pain for many, including me. But I can see the frustration will be worth the nice new road.