Detour detoured?
Jun. 3rd, 2008 07:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoSome will remember my griping about the road repairs on my road being done in advance of its use as a heavy truck detour for five months this summer, and how stupid that was. (Not to mention the disgust I felt at the idea of huge trucks running by my bedroom 24 hours a day all summer when the windows are open.
Well, they did the rush repair job, and dumped cosmetic crushed lime along the shoulders (nothing that would help if someone went off the road, as it's only an inch or less in depth and is already dispersing. They repainted the stripes just in time for the detour to become active yesterday. I noticed the increase in traffic, but not the noise I expected. This morning I found out why.
Unlike past instances in which they used our road as an alternate route during flooding, this time they have designated multiple detour routes. The road that is closed for bridge repair is a Class II truck route. That's what bothered me the most, as those trucks have been routed past here before. Not this time. There is signage up pointing to two other possible detour routes and indicating that they are the "Class II truck detour." It appears that we are designated only for traffic that would normally be permitted on the county road, which is generally less heavy and definitely not as large in terms of vehicle dimensions, unless the end point of the vehicle's travel is on that road.
The routing choices don't make much sense, as they are sending truck traffic 30 to 40 miles out of its way. I hope they enforce it though. A glance at the state's list of designated Class II routes does indicate that the detours are the shortest possible traveling over all Class II roadways. This is actually good, and politically quite unexpected in a state where commercial graft usually wins out over law or common sense.
As for the repairs on our local road, I still don't think they were very good. Almost all cosmetic, and doomed to failure within a year, especially with the heavy traffic beating they will take this summer. Similar work done by the same contractor two years ago on township roads north of here blew out in huge potholes, some as large as twelve feet in diameter, the very next spring after the work was done. Most, but not all, of that damage has now been patched by rolling new asphalt over the gravel that was dumped to fill the holes. By next spring, I expect many of those to crumble again. Those roads are less passable now than they were when they were still just gravel over mud.
On a similarly wasteful and inefficient subject, my mailbox is being stuffed every day with pleas for money from hundreds of environmental action and animal welfare groups. Many of them, such as PETA, go in the trash without even being opened. Most that I open also end up in the recycling bin, because it's obvious that 90% of any money contributed will just be spent on more fund raising, or worse, because I think the group is doing its supposed cause more damage than good. Yes, I'm opposed to animal abuse, and even more seriously opposed to the Bush Administration's current policies that rape the national forest system and sell out parklands for destruction by abusive uses such as ATV's and snowmobiles. I'm opposed to wilderness destruction in the name of oil exploration (by which they really mean more money for big oil interests, and therefore more money for the GOP) and I favor taking strong measures to reduce carbon emissions and improve more efficient forms of transportation. But the truth is, after the last seven or eight years, I have no money to spare. What I could possibly scrape up I dare not entrust to most of these groups I've never heard of until today. And most positively, I'll not be giving any of it to any political campaigns, no matter what candidate or party.
Well, they did the rush repair job, and dumped cosmetic crushed lime along the shoulders (nothing that would help if someone went off the road, as it's only an inch or less in depth and is already dispersing. They repainted the stripes just in time for the detour to become active yesterday. I noticed the increase in traffic, but not the noise I expected. This morning I found out why.
Unlike past instances in which they used our road as an alternate route during flooding, this time they have designated multiple detour routes. The road that is closed for bridge repair is a Class II truck route. That's what bothered me the most, as those trucks have been routed past here before. Not this time. There is signage up pointing to two other possible detour routes and indicating that they are the "Class II truck detour." It appears that we are designated only for traffic that would normally be permitted on the county road, which is generally less heavy and definitely not as large in terms of vehicle dimensions, unless the end point of the vehicle's travel is on that road.
The routing choices don't make much sense, as they are sending truck traffic 30 to 40 miles out of its way. I hope they enforce it though. A glance at the state's list of designated Class II routes does indicate that the detours are the shortest possible traveling over all Class II roadways. This is actually good, and politically quite unexpected in a state where commercial graft usually wins out over law or common sense.
As for the repairs on our local road, I still don't think they were very good. Almost all cosmetic, and doomed to failure within a year, especially with the heavy traffic beating they will take this summer. Similar work done by the same contractor two years ago on township roads north of here blew out in huge potholes, some as large as twelve feet in diameter, the very next spring after the work was done. Most, but not all, of that damage has now been patched by rolling new asphalt over the gravel that was dumped to fill the holes. By next spring, I expect many of those to crumble again. Those roads are less passable now than they were when they were still just gravel over mud.
On a similarly wasteful and inefficient subject, my mailbox is being stuffed every day with pleas for money from hundreds of environmental action and animal welfare groups. Many of them, such as PETA, go in the trash without even being opened. Most that I open also end up in the recycling bin, because it's obvious that 90% of any money contributed will just be spent on more fund raising, or worse, because I think the group is doing its supposed cause more damage than good. Yes, I'm opposed to animal abuse, and even more seriously opposed to the Bush Administration's current policies that rape the national forest system and sell out parklands for destruction by abusive uses such as ATV's and snowmobiles. I'm opposed to wilderness destruction in the name of oil exploration (by which they really mean more money for big oil interests, and therefore more money for the GOP) and I favor taking strong measures to reduce carbon emissions and improve more efficient forms of transportation. But the truth is, after the last seven or eight years, I have no money to spare. What I could possibly scrape up I dare not entrust to most of these groups I've never heard of until today. And most positively, I'll not be giving any of it to any political campaigns, no matter what candidate or party.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 08:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 09:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 10:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-05 02:59 am (UTC)Donations for Burma were understandably pathetic with how the aid is likely to end up in the hands of their military.
I only give to causes that help four-legged critters, but at the moment I'm down to just Wolfpark. That whole 'not made of money' thing.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 09:12 am (UTC)Send any extra money to me. I am a good cause. *gigglegrin*
Impers
no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 10:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-07 08:16 am (UTC)Good to see you're recycling, for unsolicited mail I often send it back in the reply paid envelope, funnily enough I never get another one after that.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-07 10:19 am (UTC)When I do give, oftentimes the charity gets cut off by the next year because I will not donate to any group, regardless of their cause, if they start telephoning me directly to beg for money. Several big name charities are permanently on my shit list for that and will never get another penny from me. I also get angry when, after giving $25 or $50 which is about the most I can ever afford, they start bombarding me with a letter every week or so asking for more or urging me to attend a "fund raising" event for which I would have to buy a $500 or $1000 ticket. That tells me that these are people who have no idea what they are doing, and worse yet, suffer from what I call "yuppie values." They get cut off too.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-08 12:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-08 01:35 pm (UTC)