I hate to keep harping on this, but I can't help but laugh at the folks at Public Works and their continued winter weather preparation problems. Back in early November they began applying a salt brine solution to the City's roads once each week. The solution was supposed to be effective for at least a week. Early November, you may recall, featured some very pleasant weather so the brine did little good. Some people even said the solution made the otherwise dry roads slick. 0-for-1.
Then came the infamous Thanksgiving Incident. City crews skipped a week of brine application due to the holiday, rather than moving the application to a different day. Of course winter weather struck. Lincolnites mocked. 0-for-2.
This week we got hit with more snow, and snow and ice are forecast for later today. You might have already guessed this, but I'll tell you anyway: crews didn't apply the brine solution to City roads last week. Why not? It was too cold. 0-for-3.
So far Public Works is having a pretty rough winter with this salt brine solution. We're never going to figure out if the stuff is worth the money if it is never applied at the right time.
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Major forecast revision number one is in the books. Now they’re not forecasting ice, just plenty of snow and they’re putting it off by a few hours. 😉
I was just driving around thinking how nice it would be for them to cover the main streets before the ice comes today. I guess that’s too logical.
So just to get this straight - this magic solution to help our winter driving needs can not be applied when it’s cold?
Isn’t that comparable to having an air conditioner that you can’t turn on if it’s more than 70 degrees?
They said on KLIN 1400 that they were going to apply it yesterday on the arterials after the snow melted. I have yet to see it on the roads, and once again, it was applied to bridges before the first ice storm and Rosa Parks bridge into downtown had no ice, which is usually the first street to ice up. It also costs 95 cents a gallon, whereas the salt/sand after the snowstorm costs $2500 on hour. I think those are the stats that I heard from the city two days ago.
Worst streets department ever. I used to live in St. Louis County - about 6 times the population of Lincoln. A 3 inch snow would be totally cleared. That’s 3100 miles of roads and 187 bridges. They use plows and a magic substance called “Salt”.
Their statement yesterday was they would start at 8:00 am (nice bankers hours - it had been snowing since 5:00 am) and do the main arteries. You’d think 14th and P and 14th and Q would fit that category. They were still slush at 5:00 pm. J Street at LHS is a sheet of ice.
Yesterday Chicago had 6 inches of overnight snow cleared before rush hour.
I’d love to give these people a pass. I am sure they are hard workers, nice people, etc. However, it just seems to be one thing after another, and having cleared roadways is the exception rather than the rule.
Personally, I’d rather drive a plow at 4:00 am than at 10:00 am just because there would be way less traffic in the way, and I could get more done in less time.
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