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“One Huntsville city councilman is calling for more communication among city leaders, first responders and public works for winter storm preparedness.
Recovery and clean-up efforts were called into question during Thursday’s city council meeting after last week’s winter storm shut the city of Huntsville down for days…..”
Basically John Meredith “proposed the city put together a winter weather task force.”
It's about time. Last week's winter storm was sleet, that compacted on its own into solid ice, so not plowable, but the Huntsville area has never done very well with snow, which is plowable and treatable, either.
Maybe Meredith will get some action going. Preparing by having proper equipment and supplies should be a line item in the budget.
It's about time. Last week's winter storm was sleet, that compacted on its own into solid ice, so not plowable, but the Huntsville area has never done very well with snow, which is plowable and treatable, either.
Maybe Meredith will get some action going. Preparing by having proper equipment and supplies should be a line item in the budget.
His proposal on the task force is better communication so that road closures are not only mentioned on Facebook. Also this task force would not be a “review.board” to make recommendations but more an “activation board”, which would be activated during crisis modes for the city. However, this would create lots of questions.
His proposal on the task force is better communication so that road closures are not only mentioned on Facebook. Also this task force would not be a “review.board” to make recommendations but more an “activation board”, which would be activated during crisis modes for the city. However, this would create lots of questions.
Maybe the task force will look at the overall issue. I don't really think it was a matter of miscommunication this past event. It was pretty obvious that roads were impassable without special equipment, and would have been anywhere in the country. We don't have sleet storms very often, but snow isn't unusual.
One of the county commisioners, Phil Vandiver, visited Fayetteville (just a few miles up the road) to discuss how they and TennDOT take care of issues. Tennessee isn't really snow country either, unless you're on Mt. Leconte, but they take care of things better than we do locally and ALDOT does in general. Whether anything comes of that trip remains to be seen. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid...87823498002552 Vandiver's writeup apparently isn't linkable but here's what he had to say about the trip, where I saw it on a Facebook Huntsville Roads Group.
"District 4 visits TDOT
Today I and several others went to Fayetteville, TN to visit the local Tennessee Department of Transportation or TDOT. First I want to thank them for their hospitality and willingness to share their philosophy and use of equipment in removing ice and snow from the roads. They have a very impressive operation that was really interesting to hear how they deal with the snow and ice. They have a fleet of 8-10 trucks to do about 450 lane miles of road. These trucks have the floating snow plows on the front(no down force), a mid mounted plow blade that would resemble a grader blade that puts pressure or force to remove ice and snow. Also in the bed of the truck is a salt spreader with liquid tanks that they add calcium chloride to the salt right before it hits the spreader.
They also have a brine maker and sprayers that they add calcium chloride to so the brine can work at about 5 degrees lower than brine without. They have a barn that can hold 1450 tons of salt.
Their philosophy on how to remove ice and snow goes like this. Start with brine on the roads. It’s better if it’s done before any precipitation. Once the roads start getting wet with ice or snow start the snow plows and salt. Run this road every 1 1/2 to 2 hours with snow plow with rubber blade, mid plow with metal blade scraping ice and snow and spreading 250 lbs of salt out the back while adding 8 gallons of calicum chloride per ton of salt at the spinner. Do this every 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours until the snow event is over and the roads are clear. They have 3 levels of road classification. Interstates, main Hwy like Hwy 64 and Huntsville Hwy and last the smaller highways like Hwy 273 or Railroad Bed. If the snow starts building up on the interstate they pull trucks from lower level roads to help make sure the higher level roads stay open.
Let’s discuss some cost. The manager quoted a new truck with the equipment on it as needed at $400,000. You’re going to need brine tanks and calcium chloride tanks to store products. You’re going to need a larger barn or some type of salt barn cover. A bigger brine maker, $75,000. Then to buy the products like salt and calcium chloride.
If you remember I posted a map of all the roads we had brined at the beginning and I estimate it was about 250 miles of the 488 road miles in District 4. That 250 road miles would convert to 500 lane miles. That’s about what TDOT is doing with 8-10 trucks. I’m not going to do the math for you but you can see that’s a large number. Then you need to add a bigger brine maker, more storage tanks, barns for salt and to store equipment out of the weather when not in use to keep it in good condition. You could remove all of the plows and spreaders off and use the dump trucks but we very rarely need that many trucks.
And the last thing is we haven’t discussed is where the money is going to come from. Don’t say lottery because I can about guarantee you that the whole state of Alabama Legislature is not going to support lottery money going to snow removal equipment for North Alabama. So that means that District 4 is going to have to cut something we’re doing now and the most likely area would be road construction or road maintenance.
I do think we can take what we learned today and improve on what we’re doing. Take the trucks we have now and add salt spreaders to them. Understand that the time to move snow is during the snow event and not after. Add calcium chloride to our brine and to the salt spreaders to make it more effective in colder weather. I don’t think we will be able to afford a program that plans on doing all of the streets in District 4. But I do believe we can do a better job on the main county roads. That way if you can travel for a short distance on the snow and ice once you get to the main roads you would be able to go where you need to.
Just wanted to share with you what we saw and learned. We are looking to improve our program. Keeping the cost down will play a role. We want a good program while evaluating cost. I don’t think we can get the new ideas implemented in the next 6-8 weeks which is the typical snow and ice season. We do want to do a better job in the future. If you got this far reading thanks for taking the time and interest."
In the Ch19 news clip that I watched, communications about the conditions was one of his key points. Sounded like the most active form of communications was from the citizenry reporting through various websites on the conditions they've encountered while they attempted to venture out. He was unable to respond to those in his district on the conditions because he had nothing to relay from the city.
RocketDawg and a few others had proposed cameras on roadways, namely the main corridors of traffic flow (I565, Hwy72, Parkway, etc. Their primary intent would be to report on traffic and accidents. They would be beneficial on having at least a visual data point during winter conditions.
In the Ch19 news clip that I watched, communications about the conditions was one of his key points. Sounded like the most active form of communications was from the citizenry reporting through various websites on the conditions they've encountered while they attempted to venture out. He was unable to respond to those in his district on the conditions because he had nothing to relay from the city.
RocketDawg and a few others had proposed cameras on roadways, namely the main corridors of traffic flow (I565, Hwy72, Parkway, etc. Their primary intent would be to report on traffic and accidents. They would be beneficial on having at least a visual data point during winter conditions.
A few cameras are coming from ALDOT for 565. I think the completion date is supposed to be this fall. Don't know how many, but that's what the work you see on the sides of the roadway is all about. The orange plastic piping is conduit for fiber optic cable. After that's done, there will be a number of cameras and (only 3) message boards along the length of 565.
I saw a plan from the city a year or so ago about installing cameras on the Parkway, and on a couple more main roads. Pretty sure message boards were mentioned as well. Channel 48 has 3 very good cameras they call "weather cams", but generally are showing near-realtime traffic flow on 565. The other television stations have cameras online but what's on the internet for public use seems to be restricted to still shots instead of video. There are also presently two ALDOT cameras on 565 at County Line Rd and Greenbrier.
A few cameras are coming from ALDOT for 565. I think the completion date is supposed to be this fall. Don't know how many, but that's what the work you see on the sides of the roadway is all about. The orange plastic piping is conduit for fiber optic cable. After that's done, there will be a number of cameras and (only 3) message boards along the length of 565.
I saw a plan from the city a year or so ago about installing cameras on the Parkway, and on a couple more main roads. Pretty sure message boards were mentioned as well. Channel 48 has 3 very good cameras they call "weather cams", but generally are showing near-realtime traffic flow on 565. The other television stations have cameras online but what's on the internet for public use seems to be restricted to still shots instead of video. There are also presently two ALDOT cameras on 565 at County Line Rd and Greenbrier.
I find the “traffic” option on Google maps far more informative than looking at cameras. Roads are normally green, yellow if slow, and red if stopped or closed. If Google maps has red on I65, such as near Cullman during the ice storm, would the cameras show anything additional?
I find the “traffic” option on Google maps far more informative than looking at cameras. Roads are normally green, yellow if slow, and red if stopped or closed. If Google maps has red on I65, such as near Cullman during the ice storm, would the cameras show anything additional?
That has been my thoughts on the cameras as well. I don't see a point in spending money on cameras at this point. The technology with live traffic data has surpassed having cameras. With cameras someone has to actually monitor them and then convey the information. They never have enough employees to handle what they do now so why would we think they would have someone there to monitor cameras and relay information. I have see the electronic signs on I65 with incorrect behind information many times because someone obviously is not keeping them updated. With live gps traffic data, it is just there automatically for us all to see.
That has been my thoughts on the cameras as well. I don't see a point in spending money on cameras at this point. The technology with live traffic data has surpassed having cameras. With cameras someone has to actually monitor them and then convey the information. They never have enough employees to handle what they do now so why would we think they would have someone there to monitor cameras and relay information. I have see the electronic signs on I65 with incorrect behind information many times because someone obviously is not keeping them updated. With live gps traffic data, it is just there automatically for us all to see.
Everyone can experience the two options now with Nashville. Traffic app vs camera. Honestly the cameras are better when you want see how heavy it’s raining but that’s about it.
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торговля с инсайтом – ваше видение успеха
