Sometime you see something you take for granted in a new light and it changes the way you view it.

A few nights ago I was on my way home. It was late, and I was the only car on that particular stretch of the highway at that time. It was a routine trip that I take just about every day morning and night.

But then as I approached the top of a rise in the road, along the new part just before it goes back to the old section, I saw the road in a way I had never seen before.

Apparently the glow of my high beam lights hit the reflectors on the dark pavement and the reflective strips on the orange safety barrels.

For a brief time the road looked a lot wider than it usually did and it was lit up - almost like an airport runway at night. The usually narrow-looking path to the old pavement looked wider than usual.

I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating, but there it was this dark road looking wider and more inviting than I had ever seen it.

I’ve tried several times since then to recapture that moment in my travels but it’s not there.

But it has made me more aware of the road and the construction project that has become a blur in my daily travels.

The construction on US 77 is coming along well. Last week I watched briefly as a huge hydraulic hammer pushed tall concrete support beams into theground to support the new bridges. Today, the support footings were taken from their wooden forms. Soon we will see the beams going across them to form the frame for the bridges.

Bryan Ellis with the Texas Department of Transportation said earlier this month the bridge construction should take about six to eight months to complete -so by today’s counting that should be five to seven months.

Ellis also said the new lanes of the highway are expected to open when the overpass opens in about four months.

Once the new lanes are open, then the remaining old lanes will be torn up and rebuilt.

The entire project should be completed in early 2009.