There's a popular saying among truck drivers. There are two seasons in Pennsylvania. Winter and road repair season. We are now solidly into road repair season and already it's putting a crimp in my daily commute and probably yours too. It's certainly a no-brainer that there's work to be done. The suspension crashing potholes and crumbled slabs of concrete can only be repaired or replaced when it's warm enough.

I just wish more of the work could be done at night when the impact on traffic would be minimal. People in the road building and repairing business tell me that's easier said than done. We have many bridges and over passes in our region and being able to see what you're doing when working on those structures is important. It also costs more to do some of the projects at night because of the extra lighting equipment needed and personnel costs are sometimes higher on night projects.

Some of the worst delays I've seen were are on the turnpike when crews were removing lots of trees last year. They did these kind of "rolling road blocks" where a state police car would pull out and slowly pace the traffic, miles before the tree removal zone. Traffic would then drop to one lane at the work site. This of course was always done in the morning when people were trying to get to work on time.

So please construction crews and Penndot, remember the motorists when scheduling all your projects this summer. Time is money and lengthy delays do nothing but hurt the local economy. We certainly don't need any more stress on the economy. Traffic that backs up suddenly can also be a safety issue in some cases.

What are your thoughts on road repair season?