Hwy 5 and 16 in BC were a pathetic mess this past week, moreso today. 90% of my trip was spent putting along on a sheet of ice. Maybe, MAYBE a tandem load of sand spread out on the road over a couple hundred kilometers. Lots of cars and trucks in the ditch. How is this level of service even close to being considered acceptable or safe? Are companies bidding these contracts so tight these days that they can't afford to deliver adequate service? Its winter, its Canada. This is normal weather here and not some kind of weird anomaly that happens once in a decade.
Probably lack of experienced and gung ho crews available to peel up the pack ice and know what and when to do like every other industry.
It's been quite a few years since we had snow like the storm two weeks ago dumped out. It started snowing at 30 degrees, was 28F for close to 4 days, and dropped into the deep freeze. Our roads around here are ****. Unfortunately, it takes temps in the high teens and 20s for the ice melt to do any good, and anymore they blend so fricking much salt with the sand it just melts down into the ice and is useless. No different here. Good thing is we're supposed to get about 3 days in the 30s so they should be able to peel it off.
Crazy thing is I saw 4 plow trucks and only one plow truck was actually doing anything. Weather was not bad most of the day. I remember driving that highway 10 years ago during worse storms and the roads were in better shape. I really don't understand why there wasn't at least a decent amount of sand thrown down. A couple shovel's worth of sand thrown down leading into a corner is not nearly adequate.
Many moons ago running freight from Buffalo to Chicago the powers that be decided they could save some money avoiding the toll roads stateside and send us over the top through Ontario. Well most of the roads were maintained great until you exited 401 around London and headed across 402 to the Sarnia/ Port Huron bridge. There's a giant puddle called Huron north of the 402 that can dump feet of lake effect snow and the road is maintained by "contractors". I remember one trip in particular when I was cutting trail across that sucker with a set of doubles in a foot and a half of snow with several big trucks following on the west bound side and there were no fewer than 4 big snowplows in the ditch on the eastbound side. I got on the radio and asked if anyone wanted to pass me, the only response I got was "No Mr. Cornflake you're doing a fine job". Ahh the good old days.
What amazes me as the maintenance contractors get bonuses for doing a good job.
Around here there are few contractors, the State does it themselves. They put the blade down hard and peel off the ice and the road gets abused hard as a result. The County on the other hand, would rather save the road from the incessant scraping, so some places get pack ice and are very hard to drive until it melts on its own.
There was a multi-vehicle crash on 16 just west of Jasper's west park gate a couple days ago that had the highway 100% closed for over 11 hours and then 4 hours of alternating traffic before it was all cleaned up. Not one single mention of it on any media source that I can find. Usually serious stuff like that gets a mention in the news. Really odd.
Our local newspaper is like one guy now. The photographer became a reporter and now the editor and still photographer. He apparently works 9-5 except bank holidays. Anything that happens outside those hours does not get reported unless it affects like 1000 people. I tell you there are like 12 people making the whole world go around nowadays.
Yea! but you forget Nige and I are both retired now! So might have to dial that back to 10!
I think its all dollars n cents or an excessive lack of. Maintenance on BC roads is pathetic and always caught up on after the fact. The crews for the most part have the knowledge and ability ,but are told to stand down when they are needed most. Its not unlike the fire season ,theres real reluctance to hire outside contractors when the sh*t hits the fan. Theres a resource of unused equipment available to get the job done but the bearuocrats that are good at taking our tax money are poor at spending where its needed.
I hear ya on fire season. Last year or 2 was brutal, tons of local contractors with hundreds of years combined experience in the bush, on fires, know the area and how the fire will usually behave were sitting sidelined. Cherry on top of all that is the government telling people they aren't allowed to stay and save their properties but in the same breath they also say they don't have the resources to fight the fires. Back in 2003 when **** every piece of available equipment was utilized and anyone who could operate was out doing what they could. Just don't see that these days. I remember seeing skidders running up and down the highway, putting out spot fires. Don't see stuff like that happen these days.
Washington State has a highway web site that pinpoints all the construction and accident delays. If that isn't enough there are traffic cameras that can be viewed on all the freeway interchanges and a lot of the problems areas of state roads. Most of the news media couldn't keep up with the number of idiots and lunatics causing delays. Only rush hour in Pugetopolis is covered and for the most part they just link into the interchange cameras.
All those that are calling the shots still have fat jobs no matter what. But most of them are incapable of doing any than interfere with getting things done.
A common issue you don't hear about {allotment of funds for snow removal on roads. Cities and counties for eons have a chest for funds set aside for snow removal. Problem is other projects that have over runs on budget during spring, summer and fall often end up raiding the war chest for snow removal, and don't get replaced. And one thing cities, counties and states hate is overtime.
But, a certain wealthy businessman cuts a fart and the whole world pisses their pants. Something is going on, and it's not necessarily a good thing.
Call me cynical but would not suprise me one bit if they let the roads get this bad just so they have more reasons to push EVs and cricket burgers.
Because putting the fire out isn't a story. 17000 acres burned is. And something that can be used to........... Ooops,, prolly shouldn't say any more.........
Yeah I know where you're going with that. I'm not going to elaborate either. I like hanging out here.
The last two years, we've had "meetings" telling us how to curtail the use of salt in road applications. Im all for less use of salt, but come up with an alternate that works before telling us to stop using what does work.
I was told by one of the guys doing the plowing that on the mountain passes here they have a formula equating the number of accidents during a snow event to the percentage of salt in the gravel mix being thrown on the roads by the plows.
Id bet the paasengers on the 2 busses that wiped out near Merritt BC on Christmas eve wondered why there was no sand or salt on the highway . 4 dead and 50 + in the hospital. Awful accident for those people.
What a stoopid ******* policy.
I know most of you guys replying to this thread are on the other side of the continent but Pennsylvania used to be brutal as far as salt use and interstate clearing especially the IS80 and IS90 corridors. We could run from New England to Chicago down 90 on generally clear roads with the exception of 46 miles through PA right next to Lake Erie, what an abortion. I think their idea was God brought it God will take it away. As far as 80 they would just dump a bunch of fly ash on the roads and figured the same wisdom about it going away, didn't want any salt affecting their trout stream industry, never seen more trucks in the ditch during a snowstorm and I'm very close to the Buffalo snow machine. I think it's better now but it used to be a nightmare.
Seattle had a mayor a few years ago who was worried that dumping salt on the city streets would impact the salmon. Left the snow in place and it mashed into compact snow and ice on those hills. Regular busses made of mess of things and those articulated busses for the most part shutdown all the streets. Then some people started asking why salt wasn't being used and heard the mayor yack on TV about salmon. A reporter then reminded him that Puget Sound is salt water. He lost in the next election.
Maybe understaffed? Is your government paying people not to work too?
The fact I saw 2 plow trucks just driving around doing nothing besides wasting fuel makes me believe they've got the staff to do the job.
Sand and a lot of it. The highway departments can also use sweepers and reclaim some of it in the spring. Oregon and Washington do in some areas.
I usually order a truckload of course sand every year to keep around the property. Use it in our horse paddock and the vegtable garden ,it makes for good drainage. But if we get an icy spell ill spread on all our walkways and driveways as well as the street out front . Even sand alone is very effective when its real low temperatures.As TS said use lots of it . Most of the bigger logging outfits around here have good sand trucks that could be enlisted when things are really slippery . But the powers to be think they are saving money. Forget the hospital costs of those that are injured ,insurance costs of smashed up vehicles and general lost time . The Ink Maggots are running us down the drain fast.
Had a foreman who worked for highways dept in a previous life. According to him that's exactly what they used to do when he worked there. Don't know about now. He said they used to send the trucks out to keep costs up. If the budget wasn't used this year it was cut back next year d.d.
A fellow came to work for me from the SC hwy dept. He quit because the foreman insisted he hide for 2 hrs on every load. He was a hard worker, and would work as long as I needed him, but if he wasn't doing anything, he wanted to go home.
I worked with a guy who worked for the local county road dept, same thing. Said they told him to hide when it was raining out instead of working. He could not sit out in the rain all day in the truck cab, rather work.
The city here is actually pretty good. Most streets are bare after a storm. The outlying areas are private contractors. The guy that does where I live is on the ball. They don't use salt like city or DOT, but they are not cheap with the sand. Now DOT, The main highways are good for the most part, but the side roads........ They rented me on our grader one winter as they had 2 graders down. After 4 storms, one of the supers come to me and asked if I was using my moldboard plowing. Yes? He told me you have to stop, the road is too slippery after, and it takes too much sand. I'm thinking, why do you want a grader, a truck would be cheaper. People I knew that lived along my route, said it was only slippery for a while, and it was the first winter in years that the road was bare, and not 2 wheel ruts in the snow. I think it's a budget thing. I know they are pretty tight with the overtime, and most of the time, the sand is only on turns and at stop signs. The districts are laid out with election boundaries. There is a DOT garage in my area. 20 Min away there is another one. This is the one that rented me. The boundary line runs around the outside of the city. The local district, plows a section of highway that runs through the city, to the city limits. Another district, about 45 min away comes up to their boundary at the city limits. He has to drive through the city, on a section of road plowed by the local district to the other end of the city, plows about 20 kilometers, until he meets the district that hired me, and then turns back. You would think that the local district, or the sunny corner district could do that piece of road, or even split the difference and meet in the middle
Wait until the snow and the cold goes out here we get pothole season .Nothing gets done about filling potholes ,they claim they have to wait until it dries out more. Meanwhile hundreds of vehicles are putting in claims for major suspension and tire damage. Not mention actual accidents caused by potholes. A lot could be saved by some some 1 ton dump trucks filled with patching mix running around dealing with them imediately .It would save money on the insurance even if they had to repatch a lot of these potholes over and over until its dry enough to do them right. Most of the time theres crews running around fixing bent road signs anyhow.
I've never seen insurance pay out on a claim for pot hole damage in the states. It's just a road hazard. Most figure that if you are dumb enough to hit it so fast that it will damage something, then it is just an expensive lesson for you.
Up here they go straight to ICBC and claim it.Last winter going to work id see 12 or 14 cars every morning on a about 15 mile stretch of road pulled over with imobilizing damage.This went on for almost 2 weeks,no repairs. Those darn potholes are only about 3 feet wide,hard to see if your texting or watching a movie on the way to work.
Grader took out a large patch of pavement on the street my parents live. Took them the entire summer to get it fixed. Suprised it even happened in the first place, usually by the time they get around to plowing that street the snow has already been packed down and is no longer an issue.