Traffic tie-ups have drivers snarling

Boston was hit with a confluence of traffic problems yesterday, paralyzing parts of the city for hours and further aggravating motorists already plagued with a rash of commuter problems.

Even as drivers coped with tie-ups and detours caused by the closing of Big Dig tunnels, a dump truck hauling sand rolled over on the Massachusetts Turnpike, spilling sand and diesel fuel on the roadway and closing westbound lanes for nearly two hours about midday. Work crews trying to repair a gaping hole caused by a ruptured water main diverted traffic from a portion of Massachusetts Avenue, forcing detours onto choked side streets and backing up cars all the way to Interstate 93.

With little public notice, city officials also changed one of the airport detours yesterday. Anticipating that thousands would clog streets as they headed to an afternoon game at Fenway or to concerts on City Hall Plaza and the Esplanade, officials directed airport-bound traffic away from the Government Center and Storrow Drive exits, where those events would bring extra traffic, to Exit 27 across the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge.

While some escaped problems and sailed smoothly to and from the city yesterday, many were caught in jams that even seasoned Boston drivers described as hellish.

``It's just a nightmare," said Peter Greulich, a 55-year-old land surveyor who commutes downtown from Wakefield. ``It's bad enough that they have a bad design flaw. But then that they can't even manage the traffic properly, it's just a little ridiculous."

Some commuters trying to avoid heavy traffic diverted from Big Dig tunnels closed after a fatal ceiling collapse have instead been turning to Massachusetts Avenue. But after a water main ruptured late Tuesday night, the road was backed up in both directions. Both lanes were reopened last night by 8:30 p.m.

At one point, traffic snaked more than half a mile to the highway and officials closed the Massachusetts Avenue exit to prevent more vehicles from entering the street.

``They're hitting a roadblock everywhere they go," said Jeff Larson, general manager of SmartRoute Systems, a traffic monitoring firm in Cambridge. ``From that perspective, it's kind of frustrating. People now aren't able to use their alternate route.

``Under normal circumstances, if the tunnel isn't closed and we had the Turnpike and South End incident, it would have been a run-of-the-mill day," Larson said.

City officials changed the traffic configuration of Massachusetts Avenue for yesterday's morning commute, repaving one side and directing motorists to travel northbound, a move meant to help alleviate some of the backup along I-93. For the evening rush hour, the traffic direction was changed .

Forty-two police officers were redeployed yesterday from district stations to help direct traffic along Massachusetts Avenue.

``Earlier in the day, we were sort of half joking, `When are the locusts going to come?' " said Thomas J. Tinlin, acting Boston transportation commissioner. ``Then we had the turnover on the Mass. Pike."

The hold-ups frayed nerves and appeared to set on edge Boston drivers who were already running out of patience.

``People are at a breaking point," said Manuel Andrade, 27, of Dorchester, whose 30-minute commute to Woburn has been tripled. ``It's the heat compounded with people getting off work."

The symptoms seemed to be on display everywhere: motorists confronting police officers directing traffic, drivers and pedestrians nearly coming to blows, and enraged passengers stomping off steamy buses.

Sheila Walsh , 43, of Woburn, recently started leaving her home at 5 a.m., more than an hour early, for work at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to avoid the traffic.

``Traffic? It's a parking lot!" said Rachel Weinstein of Revere, who said it took two hours to go 17 miles from Canton to Revere on Sunday, an average of less than 10 miles per hour.

She has since canceled hair appointments on the South Shore and is resisting any visits that require driving across the city.

At Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, near the water main break, people were leaning on their horns as police directed traffic. Near Quincy Market, there were police directing traffic at every intersection.

``The cars are becoming less patient to pedestrians crossing, especially when you have this huge number of pedestrians and huge number of cars trying to get through the same intersection," said Keith Bell, 32, who walks 2 miles every day to work.

Not everyone faced traffic problems. MBTA use is up slightly, for example, and ridership to Logan Airport on buses and subways is about a third higher than this time last year, according to Richard Walsh, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority.

But it also seemed clear that, in a city where drivers are known to be less than calm under normal circumstances, that many motorists were emotionally frayed.

Some said that was because drivers were briefly given a taste of life without the headaches of Big Dig construction, only to be subjected this week to new obstacles.

``The commuters were teased," said Councilor John Tobin . ``It's like the Sox winning the World Series in 2004 and then the commissioner's office coming back and taking it back. People got used to the roads, and now they're back to how it used to be."

Mac Daniel and Russell Nichols of the Globe staff, and Globe correspondents Emma Fitzsimmons and Shawntaye Hopkins contributed to this report. Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.