WTF is with road maintenance crews these days

[John C.]

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.

 

[Tugger2]

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.

 

[Shimmy1]

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.

What a stoopid facking policy.

 

[stinky64]

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.

 

[John C.]

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.

 

[Vetech63]

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.

Maybe understaffed? Is your government paying people not to work too?

 

[92U 3406]

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.

 

[Truck Shop]

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.

 

[Tugger2]

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.

 

[donkey doctor]

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.

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.

 

[mitch504]

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.

 

[Birken Vogt]

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.

 

[cuttin edge]

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

 

[Tugger2]

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.

 

[John C.]

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.

 

[Tugger2]

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.

 

[92U 3406]

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.

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.