annoyedNDOT sucks.
So they're doing road construction on I-80 near Mogul. There are warnings about it a good ten miles back, well into California, even (imagine: Two states cooperating! :-) ) The traffic gets backed up with delays of approximately one hour eastbound.
After being in the delay for almost an hour (and three miles), I decide to bail out at Boomtown and double back westbound to Verdi, where I'd take the old US-40, which parallels the freeway, back east and avoid the rest of the jam. So, I do so, I get off westbound I-80 at Verdi, and continue east on my merry way.
But then, when I get to the onramp, a flagman stops me and turns me around. He says that the ramp is closed for construction. I explain I just need to get to McCarran Blvd.; he says to turn around and get on the freeway three miles back. I try to explain to him that I was just IN that mess, got tired of it, and that's why I came this way. But he didn't seem to understand that. So I turned around, now understand the frantic gesturing of a few cars coming toward me as I was way back there--they were trying to tell me.
So, I backtrack three miles AGAIN, sit in the traffic jam AGAIN (which by this time has extended to almost Gold Ranch), and then pass Boomtown AGAIN, this time deciding to stick with it rather than trying to bail.
And guess what? Only 1/2 mile and about five minutes after passing Boomtown, everything clears up and traffic is back up to 75 MPH. D'oh!!! So my supposed cleverness cost me over an hour of precious free time.
But what I'm pissed about was that there was no sign anywhere near the place saying that the onramp to I-80 from eastbound US-40 was closed. A sign three miles back from the onramp would have been nice, so that cars didn't have to go all the way up there and be turned around.