Maybe you’ve witnessed this scene before: brake lights flash at you menacingly, and you know that school bells will only emphasize your absence. You lay your head on the steering wheel, too tired to be frustrated. What a great way to start the morning.

Construction in downtown Noblesville: while it could be beneficial for the quality of the city itself, it’s creating quite a hassle for many NHS students. Construction is now causing trips throughout the city to take almost twice as long and drastically altering the landscape of our city in numerous areas.

“I love that Noblesville is modernizing and improving lots of different things in the downtown area, however, they really don’t need to be doing a dozen projects at the same time,” said senior Rylan Cripe. “Having to navigate one area of construction is doable, but when you’re driving and surrounded by traffic and closed roads and detours, it can be a little frustrating.”

While the city is doing a considerable amount of construction, the most significant areas of change are along State Road 32 by Riverview Health where students say getting through both intersections takes five to ten minutes. This makes it challenging for students to get into various restaurants such as Starbucks, Taco Bell, Michelangelo’s, and, especially, Noblesville’s favorite blue-roofed building. 

Noblesville’s Culver’s has been limited to only one entrance and exit, causing difficulties not just to their customers, but their employees, too.

“I definitely have to get in the car a bit earlier to beat the traffic,” said Lauren Davis, a senior at NHS who also works at Culver’s.

The ever-increasing traffic isn’t the only problem that restaurants in the area face. Constructing new buildings and widening the road doesn’t directly affect restaurants or their customers, but the construction, students say, is still causing disturbances.

“It’s kind of an inconvenience, and it’s really loud,” said Davis.

While this may seem like a minor problem, the sounds like sawing, screwing, and jackhammering, aren’t exactly the quietest sounds. But despite the traffic and the noise, Culver’s is still able to bring in a considerable number of customers.

“There’s people that ask a lot [about construction], in the drive thru, or just say how crazy [the construction] is,” said Davis.

While these dedicated customers may have chosen to wait a bit longer to get their favorite food, that does not mean that those inconveniences went unnoticed by them. And traveling through or even near downtown has its difficulties, too.

“I don’t drive to school, I take the bus, but this year, [the school bus] has arrived much later because of construction,” said Davis.

And late arrivals of buses makes students angry, causing construction frustration to spread farther than downtown. And, some students agree, new roads and roundabouts will never fully replace the restaurants we lose or the frustration we face from their construction.