i hate hate and hate going over avon mountain

it's a WHITE KNUCKLE drive ALL the way from bottom to top. yes, even when you're going 5 mph (which you do 75% of the time due to the construction). i drove over it 5 days a week for MANY years (work). now i only go over it once every couple of months. STILL i HATE IT. i'd rather drive it like it WAS than how it is now. i sure do hope when the construction leaves (i'll believe it when i see it) it WILL be easier, safer and LESS DANGEROUS

By RINKER BUCK And MELISSA TRAYNOR, rbuck@courant.com

AVON — Workers in the construction trades are used to rising early, but lately Todd Kennedy has taken that to extremes. Kennedy, a gable-builder from Coventry, who does most of his work in the Farmington Valley, rises well before 5 because he knows that a big, time-consuming obstacle blocks his morning commute: Avon Mountain.

"I have to leave at 5:30 every morning just to make sure I make a 7:30 arrival at my job site, because you always know that the traffic bottlenecks caused by the construction on Avon Mountain will add 45 minutes to the drive," Kennedy said recently, looking up from his table saw while he worked a job on Montevideo Road at the top of the mountain in Avon.

"By the end of the day, I feel trapped on this mountain," he said. "It takes forever just to get back on Route 44, and then my route through West Hartford will be blocked by all the commuters" trying to avoid the construction...............

pic: Traffic snakes around hazard cones and curves on Route 44 over Avon Mountain. The reconstruction work began in the spring of 2008. (Bettina Hansen / The Hartford Courant / July 27, 2010)