Unless you like to stare at bumpers, avoid I-35

By Bud Kennedy

bud@star-telegram.com

The "Main Street of North America" is more like the Main Headache.

So until Interstate 35 is finished in 2014, expect traffic jams in Hico.

"It was bumper to bumper last weekend -- five blocks solid," said Lynn Allen, owner of the 45-year-old Koffee Kup Family Restaurant, a burger-and-pie landmark on U.S. 281.

But on I-35, the backup was 10 miles.

In a blunt warning, state highway officials in Fort Worth are urging motorists to drive U.S. 281 to Austin and completely stay off I-35, slowed for 60 miles of expansion projects between Waco and Temple.

But many last week didn't get the word.

"The biggest puzzle is how to tell travelers," said Jodi Wheatley of Waco-based My35.org, a state website devoted solely to I-35 construction.

"This road can't handle the whole holiday load. We tried to warn people."

The annual Thanksgiving bottleneck began a day early. Traffic snarled Tuesday at Temple, and Wednesday was worse.

Then came Sunday, when everybody tried to come home.

Drivers with plenty of time for Facebook and Twitter reported seven-hour delays.

(For the record, the drive took less than four hours using Texas 317, which links to farm roads through Cayote, Whitney, Blum and Keene.)

The Texas Department of Transportation office in Fort Worth had published specific warnings for TCU Horned Frogs football fans.

"Congestion on I-35 is just a fact of life," Fort Worth-based spokesman Val Lopez said Tuesday.

"At holidays, we always suggest some other route."

The burden in Waco and Temple is a boon to Hico, Hamilton and Lampasas, all along U.S. 281, which is usually recommended for drives to Austin and particularly San Antonio.

The Koffee Kup set records, Allen said.

"We were full of [TCU] purple shirts all day Friday," he said.

"Everybody had pie and talked about how glad they were to be off I-35," he said.

Allen even arranged for the town marshal to give anyone ticketed for speeding a token for free pie.

Just don't speed.

Bud Kennedy's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

817-390-7538

Twitter: @budkennedy

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