Spurwatch, Day 2

So it's been more than 24 hours since the northbound Spur 527 reopened, and people still haven't figured out how to use it. Though it wasn't as bad as it was yesterday, traffic was heavy heading toward the downtown split this morning — and fortunately for us, KHOU's Reggie Aqui was on the scene to explain what was happening. The video of Aqui's report is (pardon us) aquí.

Aqui did his report for Channel 11's morning newscast from beside the downtown split (though KHOU traffic guy Darby Douglas inexplicably indicated with his telestrator that Aqui was standing somewhere near the top of the Woodhead bridge), where he showed that traffic was moving just fine going into the spur. But back a bit, near Greenbriar and Shepherd, things were really backed up, apparently from drivers trying to figure out which lane they should be in. Though temporary signage is in place (including the pre-reconstruction directional signs, which apparently were hauled out of storage and put up), we guess it'll take a while for everyone to figure the split out. Left two lanes: spur. Right two lanes: 59 north. It's not hard.

In other 59/spur news, the Chronicle reports today that the fifth lane of the freeway near the downtown split will be closed for the next four to six weeks while workers install concrete walls alongside the freeway. Everyone seems to expect traffic to clear right up when that lane opens. We'll see.