Pawtucket's S-Curves

Seeing how the week began with a transportation theme, it is wholly appropriate to continue in that vein.

I drive through Providence and therefore Pawtucket several times a week on my commute to the Boston area. I'd say this section of Interstate 95 was designed by morons, but that implies at least some thought and planning.

From the Providence line through Pawtucket are these hideous S-curves. As soon as you careen through one, another appears up ahead in front of you. They really aren't banked well like the S-curves in a racetrack are...so on a rainy day like today they can be especially treacherous.

Coincidentally tonight while driving home through them I heard a Sheryl Crow song I like: "Every Day is a Winding Road." When you commute to Boston from RI, it certainly is.

The song opens with a bongo drum solo...and I imagined rapping RIDOT engineers' foreheads with my knuckles in time with the beat.

Gov. Carcieri Picks Big Dig Manager to Run RIDOT

Governor Donald Carcieri (R-Clueless) has chosen Michael P. Lewis to take over Rhode Island’s troubled Department of Transportation.

Lewis is famous for overseeing Boston’s Big Dig, a construction project that jumped in price from $2.6 billion to $14.8-billion over a 7-year period.

Cost-overruns. Quality issues. One death.

In other news, Carcieri is said to be considering Michael Brown, formerly of FEMA, to run Rhode Island's Emergency Management Agency. For the role of science advisor, Carcieri is said to be looking at one of the former Morton Thiokol engineers who designed the O-rings on Shuttle Challenger. And for his new chief of staff, Carcieri is said to be pondering Mike DuHaime, the genius campaign manager from the recently-deceased Giuliani campaign.