Our Take: Patience is a virtue and Madison Street is putting it to the test

If you can safely navigate a car through the streets of Dublin, Georgia, then you can drive anywhere. With more motorists than ever on the roads, especially in our main downtown corridors, encountering traffic has become a daily occurrence, particularly when everybody leaves work for the day. The problem has only gotten worse since the city closed Madison Street for construction. 

They say you don’t really miss something until it’s gone. And after sitting through multiple lights on Jefferson and Jackson streets, we sure do miss Madison Street. 

Madison Street has been cut off to through traffic since July, when work began on a comprehensive streetscape project that includes everything from resurfacing the street and sidewalks to burying power lines. It’s been a massive inconvenience, espcially for locals coming downtown to work in the offices, shop in the stores and boutiques or dine in the restaurants.  

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The construction has already interfered with the holiday season, and the street most likely will still be closed by our community’s signature event, the Saint Patrick’s Festival. City officials say we’ve reached the halfway point and that we should soon see rapid progress as those lines begin to disappear and street and sidewalks become a usable artery again. But that means another six months or so of going around the block, sitting in the traffic, etc. 

We’re confident that it will all be worth it. When it’s all said and done, the updated Madison Street will be an excellent addition to our ever-improving downtown area, but in the meantime it’s really putting our patience to the test.