Lincoln Southwest parents, students face delays amid 14th Street construction
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Construction on 14th Street is causing traffic delays for students and parents during the first week of school.
One woman who wanted to remain anonymous said driving from 27th Street and Yankee Hill Road to Southwest High School took her 32 minutes Monday. It normally takes six.
One northbound and one southbound lane are closed, slowing traffic.
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Another woman, Emina Husovic, works near 14th Street and said the construction is a huge inconvenience.
“It makes me late to work often, and I feel like I should be leaving a little early, but some days are worse than others,” she said. “Especially with school starting, I feel like this is a bad time for them to be doing this. Kids are late to school. Parents are late dropping them off.”
She said she sees cars backed up constantly.
“When I’m on my way to work or leaving work, I’ve definitely seen it backed up to the point where I feel like I can never get through,” she said.
To help with traffic, spokeswoman Erika Hill said Lincoln’s Transportation and Utilities Department has made green lights longer.
Hill said LTU started construction on 14th Street as soon as school dismissed in May.
“For 14th Street, we were able to start the progress to improve the street the minute school got out,” she said. “For two months, we were able to minimize those impacts.”
She said the project is on time and is expected to be finished this fall.
“We rarely have projects that are able to be done in just two months’ time,” Hill said.
