Centralia Highway 1744A

Crown Highway 1744A
public highway
Centralia%20Highway%201744A/C-1744A.png
alternate name "Tzetze's Driveway"
east end The street outside the palace grounds
west end Tzetze's garage
Boring Stuff Annex, Palace of Serenity
Contents[+]
  1. Centralia Highway 1744A[+]
    1. Duckling Tunnel[+]
      1. Background
      2. Construction
      3. Indcidents

Crown Highway 1744A is an unusually short numbered highway serving the Boring Stuff Annex of the Palace of Serenity. It is used almost exclusively by Tzetze, Minister of Information Systems, and functionally serves as his private driveway.

Duckling Tunnel

Background

As the driveway runs between two ponds, ducks and other waterfowl often cross the driveway to move between the bodies of water. When the road first opened with the completion of the Boring Stuff Annex, the most prominent duck crossing spot was simply marked with a DUCK XING sign.

In 2011, a traffic signal was placed at the duck crosswalk. Because this is Centralia, somehow the ducks understood that they should only cross when the signal was active. Tzetze, however, often had to wait for the red light to get up and down the driveway. This was a bit of an annoyance, especially since the traffic signal was inexplicably on a timer instead of a sensor and tended to activate even when no ducks were crossing.

Construction

In March 2017, CenDOT announced that C-1744A would be closed for 21 days for construction of a tunnel beneath the roadway providing ducks access between the two ponds.

Construction proceeded as planned, however, the opening of the tunnel was delayed four days as Princess Alice, who was going to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony and photoshoot, happened to get Actually Really Sick right when the tunnel was planned to open. We don't really know how an entity of living magic can contract a common cold, but somehow she managed.

C-1744A reopened on 27 March 2017 following the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Tzetze notably did not attend. It is assumed that he was busy cooking noodles, though nobody knows for sure because in the past Princess Alice has been a rather poor judge of when Nitya is cooking noodles.

Indcidents

During the morning rush hour of 28 March 2017, a mere day after the tunnel's opening, the Bird Police shut down the Duckling Tunnel after reports of a hawk in the area wearing an admittedly-pretty-cute bib reading DUCKLINGS ARE DELICIOUS. The tunnel was reopened by noon the same day, when it seemed safe to assume that the hawk got bored and flew away.