The old adage about there being two seasons in Minnesota-- winter and road construction -- sure is true. It seems you can't drive anywhere these days without running into those dreaded orange cones on another construction project. 

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But one thing I wonder is, why is such a broad stretch of the road or highway blocked off, when the actual construction work itself is only taking place in a smaller stretch, often times quite far away?

For instance, on the most recent Highway-52 construction project south of Pine Island, the left lane was blocked off for nearly five miles. Yet, it appeared that the actual repairs to the road were being only in a much smaller stretch. So why was the entire 5 mile work zone blocked off?

A similar situation is happening right now on 6th Street southwest in Rochester. A portion of the northbound lane is blocked off by orange cones from 10th Avenue all the way east until 7th Avenue, yet there appears to be a couple of blocks where no work is happening at all. So again, I wonder, why such a large portion is blocked off?

I'm guessing it might be for a couple of reasons. First, on a project like the Hwy-52 repairs, it's probably faster for crews to set down all the cones at one time, rather than having to continually pick them up and take them down as work on the project progresses. That's probably true, too, on the utility work being done along 6th Street.

Plus, I'm also guessing that just because there doesn't happen to be work going on in a particular stretch of road or highway at the very moment I'm driving by, doesn't mean it isn't slated to be worked on in the near future.

I also understand worker safety is of primary concern, and that creating a larger buffer between them and the passing traffic might also be a reason. They all make sense, and I'm sure there's a valid reason the entire stretch of road is blocked off.

But it does always make me wonder what exactly is going on when  traffic is backed up due to a lane closure, yet you don't see any construction work actually being done in that lane!

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