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SACRAMENTO-

The first stage of the Fix 50 project and its promise of clogged side streets parallel to the W-X freeway is bound to mean no fun for real eastbound drivers.

Casey Laws already has a low opinion of traffic in the area.

“It’s bad. It’s bad. People are rude,” she said.

Sacramento’s W-X freeway is the spot where Interstates 99, 80 and 50 run together between W and X streets.

Construction starting April 22 to mend the cracked bridge deck has thousands strategizing alternate routes.

The city traffic center where street lights will be adjusted to help drivers like Laws is off-limits to cameras right now, but FOX40 did get inside during 2008’s Fix 5 effort.

This time Caltrans bumped up its construction schedule by two weeks, which means new big screen monitors aren’t yet in place to show staff hot spots that need to be managed.

Still, the city says it’s ready for day one –  PC screens.

“We’ll still have the staff in there who know what to look for, can change the signal timing…shouldn’t change the operation just not as nice,” said Linda Tucker, communications director for Sacramento’s Department of Transportation.

With so little time left until eastbound drivers lose access to two lanes and the 11th street on-ramp Linda Tucker says construction and congestion may not be the biggest problem out on the roads.

Lots of drivers still don’t even know when the project starts.

“We want to make sure people educate themselves; what is open, what is closed.  You can survive if you come up with a plan,” said Tucker.