coned off since may

and if you turn from Tudor onto Minnesota, you already know exactly which lane we mean.

That second left-turn lane has been blocked off since early May, and we've all been left guessing why for months. Turns out it isn't roadwork somebody forgot about. It's a failing pipe running underneath the road that made that whole stretch unsafe to drive over.

Crews first noticed the trouble back in May, while the ground was still frozen solid. Once everything thawed out in June, they confirmed the damage was the real deal. Now the fix has to wait its turn behind permits and environmental checks before anyone can even start digging.

The state says repairs should finally get going in late August, with the lane back open by the middle of September. Until then, that nightly line of brake lights on Tudor, waiting to swing left onto Minnesota, isn't going anywhere.

It's the kind of small thing that turns into a real headache when you hit it every single evening on the drive home. One blocked lane doesn't sound like much until you're the one stuck in it night after night. So if you've been white-knuckling that merge since spring, at least now you know it's a busted pipe under there, not just a pile of forgotten cones, and there's finally a finish line in sight.