By KEVIN CHIRI

Editor and Publisher

GARYVILLE – One obvious problem for St. John residents, coming from the Marathon construction project, has been the heavy traffic near the refinery.

Traffic has increased substantially on Airline Highway at two times during the time, while River Road has also had an increase.

Marathon has hired a number of extra officers from the St. John Sheriff’s Office to help the traffic flow as smoothly as possible, which is needed during shift changes.

But there are now four entrance/exit roads coming off Airline Highway, while River Road now has three entrance/exit roads for drivers to be aware of.

Plant Manager Rich Bedell advised residents to do their best to avoid coming through the area during those times, which begins about 6:30 a.m., and then a little before 5 p.m.

“We are making some improvements to Airline Highway that will be permanent, such as turn lanes and acceleration lanes,” he said. “And that will all help. But we realize that when this many workers are coming and going, there is only so much that can be done.”

There are currently 3,800 construction workers on site each day, and things will only get worse as that number rises to nearly 5,000 by the end of the year.

The project will be ongoing until late in 2009.