I took two test drives down Interstate 495 South on Thursday to experience the resurfacing project from a driver's perspective.

It's a $20.8 million project occurring over a 12-mile stretch from Franklin to the Norton line that's expected to take three years to complete.

The job on the northbound side of I-495 was notorious for accidents and fatalities, and comments from a local resident about commuting time prompted me to check out the situation for myself.

Let me preface my ride by saying I used to live in Plainville, and I-495 was the route of choice to get pretty much anywhere I needed to go beyond a 10-mile radius of my house.

My sister and I used to joke about the human body-sized potholes that littered the highway on our trips to anywhere, but really they weren't that funny, especially when your car landed in one while traveling at 70 mph. So I could definitely see the need for the construction work.

But back to my test drive, I took two southbound runs last Thursday.

The first took place in the early afternoon, just before 1 p.m., starting at exit 17 (Route 140) in Franklin.

The first thing I noticed were the signs indicating that road construction was happening, what was happening, where it was happening, when it was happening, and how it was happening.

There were flashing electronic signs on the left side, signs indicating the highway would be reduced to two lanes, signs indicating a merge was coming up, signs indicating a lane shift and other signs.

I was impressed with the amount of signs.

In two spots from Route 140 to Route 1A, three lanes merged down to two, including the breakdown lane. The two merges and lane shifts were a bit disruptive, but manageable at that time of day.

The lane shifts were well-marked, though the pavement in the breakdown lane was rough, uneven, and difficult to drive on. Then again, so is the rest of the highway, which is presumably why all the work's being done in the first place.

As it turns out, that first run was relatively uneventful. The traffic was light, and it was an easy trip.

The only thing that really sparked my attention was a blue Buick in front of me that didn't seem to know how to cope with the lane shift. Instead of following the new direction of the lane they were traveling in, they just kept going straight, nearly cutting off a pickup truck in the process.

My second ride on the southbound side was about 5 p.m. during the evening rush hour.

I started from the same place, exit 17 in Franklin, but this time there was bumper-to-bumper traffic.

The main problem seemed to be a bottleneck because of the two spots where three lanes merge to two.

The traffic was bad, but not horrible, especially considering it was the height of rush hour.

But I could see that section of highway becoming a parking lot on weekends, when shoppers head in droves to the Wrentham Village Premium Outlets off Route 1A.

The speed limit was posted at 55 mph, and when traffic eased up, most drivers seemed to be obeying it.

One other problem I saw at that time of day was the ability, or lack thereof, to merge onto the highway from the King Street exit.

Since the breakdown lane is in use on that stretch of road, cars coming onto the highway from the onramp basically have nowhere to merge.

Either they stop and wait for a break in traffic or for someone to let them in, or they just pull out and disrupt the flow.

Signs warning drivers of the impending situation helped, but not that much. Signs can only do so much.

All told, it took me 12 minutes about 5 p.m. to get from exit 17 to exit 15 (Route 1A) and four more minutes to get to exit 13 (Route 95), about twice as long as it took during normal conditions.

Not exactly ideal, I thought, but not too bad either for the height of rush hour in a construction zone.

Have you driven down Route 495 south since the resurfacing project began? If so, how was your experience? Weigh in below.