"Patience" will be the best watchword for motorists and commercial vehicle operators traveling in or around Butler this year.

Drivers endured the inconvenience of a closed Whitestown Road between Vagabond Drive and Fairground Hill Road from Jan. 24 until this week. The closing was necessitated by repairs to damage caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ivan in September.

Originally scheduled to reopen on March 18, the Vagabond-to-Fairground section of Whitestown was forced to remain inaccessible to through traffic for an additional seven weeks because of more damage discovered after the repair project got under way.

But while many motorists breathed a sigh of relief this week when the Whitestown barriers were removed, they awoke to the new reality of immediate lane restrictions and delays at the nearby Picklegate Crossing, which is being readied for the additional traffic that will use the span when the current Main Street Viaduct is closed.

At Picklegate, workers will remove traffic islands, widen the road and install traffic signals to enable both northbound lanes of Route 8 to turn onto the bridge rather than continue the current scenario, in which one of the northbound lanes allows vehicles to proceed to Main Street.

The Picklegate preparation work is to continue until May 20. The Main Street bridge is scheduled to close July 18, and the detour is to remain in effect until late October, when presumably the southbound section of the new viaduct will be ready for traffic.

Both northbound and southbound traffic will use the two-lane southbound section until the northbound section is completed about November of next year.

The new viaduct is being built in two sections. Work on the northbound section won't begin until the southbound section opens. Considerable winter-travel inconvenience will be avoided by that construction approach that will minimize the time Main Street's viaduct area will be closed to travel.

Then there is the ongoing criticism of travel on Main Street in general. Although the situation is much better than what existed in the weeks after Main Street was changed to two travel lanes from four last year, some people aren't satisfied with the amount of time it still takes for vehicles to navigate the downtown business district. There still are people who support removal of one or both sides of Main Street parking, which, over the long run, would be a blessing - a blessing that is opposed by members of the business community.

Meanwhile, the city won't be out of the "detour woods" even when November 2006 arrives. The Main Street Viaduct replacement is to be followed immediately by the also badly needed replacement of the nearby Wayne Street Viaduct.

The deplorable condition of city-maintained streets in general will be another bitter pill that Butler motorists will have to swallow amid the necessary delays and detours surrounding the state's efforts - although some city street resurfacing is scheduled to take place.

When work on the new Main Street Viaduct began last June, Mayor Leonard Pintell called the new span "a bridge for a better tomorrow."

That was an apt depiction of what the new bridge represents to the city.

But "getting to there from here" will require understanding, patience and perseverance buoyed by the knowledge that the orange barrels and construction signs - including those alerting drivers about an active work zone requiring headlights - have a happy ending in sight.

The viaduct project carries a price tag of $23.1 million. The patience of motorists that will be necessary during this year's construction season will be worth that much or more.

In the end, the better Butler that will result will be worth all of the frustration that the coming months will mete out to drivers.