Test Day (Updated)

By: Mr. Wilson on February 13, 2009
Today's winter storm will be a good test for the road crews at Public Works. So far this winter they've survived on excuses. (My favorite was the Thanksgiving incident.) Today's storm, if it occurs as forecast, should be favorable for them for several reasons:
  • The storm was predicted well in advance.
  • It comes just one day after the anti-icing solution was applied.
  • The bulk of the snow is supposed to occur during daylight hours when crews are rested and available.
  • We are supposed to get a decent amount of snow, but not a ridiculous amount of snow.
  • The snow is supposed to end tonight, giving night crews as much as 12 hours to have streets spiffed up for traffic on Saturday morning.
We wish you well, road crews! Just to be clear, I'm not picking on any of the people at Public Works, just their often less-than-satisfactory outcomes. I get frustrated when, for example, my parents call and tell me their cul-de-sac is being scraped clean while major arterials are still a mess. That's a tactical problem, not a crewmember competence problem. UPDATE: At noon and again at 1:30pm things looked decent. At noon, 17th Street between South and A was bad, but the other streets I hit were in ok shape. At 1:30pm a couple spots Downtown were particularly messy and portions of Capitol Parkway were rough. On the other hand, I drove between 30 and 35 miles per hour on 40th Street between Normal and Highway 2, though the downhill leading toward the light at Pioneers almost got me.

Comments

See what your friends and neighbors have to say about this.

Gene
February 13, 2009 at 2:56PM

<i>I get frustrated when, for example, my parents call and tell me their cul-de-sac is being scraped clean while major arterials are still a mess. That

Fletch
February 13, 2009 at 3:21PM

The other advantage to the road crews is that today is not a holiday. So they should be working anyway.

I was expecting a post about whether it was smart for LPS to cancel school by ten o’clock last night, when nary a flake had fallen anywhere in the state.

I guess we’ll know by 3 or 4 if that was a smart call or not. I think, all in all, I agree with it. I just figured it would make a good blog post.

Mr. Wilson
February 13, 2009 at 3:33PM

I thought about it. I decided to pick on Public Works instead. Besides, canceling classes was 100% expected: there’s no elementary school on Monday so it was a no-brainer that LPS would shoot for a 4-day weekend if at all possible.

Gene
February 13, 2009 at 3:38PM

By about 4pm, we should know where to direct our LJS comment anger. Will it be LPS or will be it Public Works?

Fletch
February 13, 2009 at 3:42PM

Smart play. That’s why you run a blog, and I don’t. Perhaps i should. LOL

We should do another 20 questions one of these days. Good times!

Mr. Wilson
February 13, 2009 at 3:56PM

Ask and you shall receive, Fletch! Here it is.

Gene
February 13, 2009 at 4:39PM

You should have asked for money, dude.

D.M.B.
February 14, 2009 at 4:09AM

SNOW-MAGEDDON 2009!

That should have been he title of this thread.

Gene
February 15, 2009 at 9:30PM

I must say that as I was driving home from work at 3pm on Friday, I was pretty darn impressed with the public works crews. Nice job.

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