Ever since the DOT closed the Gano Street on-ramp to Route 195 East what seems like a hundred years ago (it really was in June 2003), every trip from the East Side to all points east has contained a "Shit!" moment. That's the moment when you remember that you can't get there from here without choosing one of two evils: Either follow the convolutions of the "detour" over the Henderson Bridge and through the traffic-clogged intersections around Broadway and Warren Avenue, or drive out of your way westward all the way down busy Wickenden Street and wait at the traffic signal to turn left and onto the ramp there. Just recently, mind you, that on-ramp was moved, so that you now have to make a longer loop around a derelict section of India Point waterfront, then following a half-mile line of orange traffic cones to finally get on 195 going east.What gives? Will we ever get back the ease of the Gano Street East on-ramp?
Yes and no, DOT spokesman Charles St. Martin tells me. This summer (!), DOT expects to have in place an on-ramp that will be only slightly less convenient than the original. You'll come down Gano, go under the highway, loop around the Radisson Hotel and continue heading west (opposite from the direction you want to go) to the Wickenden Street on-ramp.
So maybe sometime this summer we'll be saying "Damn!" instead of "Shit!"
I guess you could call that a highway improvement.
