Many citizens are being affected by the excessive road work in Naugatuck, especially for students getting to and from school. The traffic aggravates the majority of people who drive on Rubber Ave, whether people are driving to school, or riding the bus, it affects almost everyone. Many students report getting to school late due to road work, which is becoming a daily occurrence. Some NHS buses come as early as 6:20 to make it to school on time taking account of the traffic. It’s become an inconvenience for everyone. 

Although the Naugatuck road work will be beneficial in the future, they currently need to accommodate NHS students and other people traveling through Rubber Ave. If they worked later, this would allow people to pass through the roads easily, and arrive at their destination on time. When highways get improved, the work is done during the evening or night so that the roadwork does not bother anyone going to or from work. By implementing these suggestions, it would help lower traffic congestion and lessen the causes of aggravation for drivers.

These road improvements will be a huge help in the future, with new sidewalks being added, benefiting the people who walk to school. But as of right now, people find it to be troublesome, and has been a cause of annoyance for people driving through the heavy traffic. The frustration caused from heavy traffic during commuting hours further elaborates why the roadwork on rubber ave should be done at night. 

A future project that the Naugatuck Public Works Department is considering is to replace the 4-way intersection near the Portuguese Club and build a roundabout. However, due to a recent flood that damaged roads on Rubber Ave and around the town, repairing the damages has become the town’s priority. Because of this, the older project to restore Rubber Ave has been postponed. 

We have interviewed multiple students at NHS and two educators on how these town projects have personally impacted them. Chloe, a junior from Naugatuck High School, shares her experience as someone who drives to school. “I leave the house earlier to get to school on time,” she explains.

A pattern was noticed within the interviews conducted. They all said that they believe that the new roadwork could be beneficial to the town, but it could be done in a better way.  Many suggested the road work could be performed in the evening when the traffic is lighter and the road work would only impact the few nightly drivers. 

“The roads will be good for the future, but for now, we must suffer. The new road work and sidewalks will help commute,” said Mr. Burke, science teacher and football coach at NHS.

He feels that the town will be more pedestrian-safe because of the new sidewalks. He had also mentioned the flood damage, describing the situation as “eye-opening.” 

Although Mrs. DiLozenzo doesn’t drive through the road work, she shared a tip for avoiding the traffic. She uses a GPS that shows the amount of traffic on the roads, and she drives around it to make it to school on time.

The current road work in Naugatuck has become an inconvenience and annoyance to the people traveling through the roads. Road work causes students and workers to arrive at their destination late and is currently only beneficial for the future of Naugatuck, not the present. Working later times could ease the frustration of people getting to work or school late and will cause traffic to flow more easily.