Under Construction...

My commute sucks, and that's only if I travel at off-peak hours. Fortunately, help is on the way:

After legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger demanded that the list be changed to favor congestion projects, and more of them, the staff put out a new list Monday with $1.1 billion in Bay Area projects. (http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/ci_5329443)

Here's another amusing tidbit:

Transportation officials' carefully organized media event Friday to celebrate progress in highway construction turned into a live demonstration of just how unhappy life is for commuters on Interstate 580.

Caltrans Director Will Kempton, California Transportation Commissioner James Ghielmetti and Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty were to update the media at 2 p.m. under an awning set up next to the eastbound lanes of the interstate, a short distance east of the El Charro Road interchange.

Haggerty, however, didn't get there until close to 3 p.m. after leaving Oakland at 1:45 thanks to the very traffic bottleneck that was to frame the event.

"There is no reason that any taxpaying citizen should have to go though this traffic," Haggerty said to a reporter who had made the same enervating journey with similar results. "Just getting from the 580-680 interchange to here has totally drained me for the rest of the evening."

Haggerty said he could not blame passing motorists who saw the assembly of transportation officials for flipping them "the one-fingered salute." (http://origin.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_5406547)