respublica

Highway ladders are still a thing

A couple of years ago, KMOX radio traffic copter reporter, Rodger Brand noticed frequent ladders and mattresses along the highways. He decided it was time to start counting them up with the year's total in December. It turned out to be fairly large numbers of these things which could be a real danger to other drivers. By doing this he hoped drivers who hauled these items would pay attention to securing them safely.

Although he doesn't do this anymore that I can tell, I always keep this in mind when we are on the highway near trucks or cars with mattresses or ladders hooked up to their vehicles. We give them a wide berth.

So today I read this from a friend of ours: "Beware of unsecured ladders that fly off pick-up trucks as you’re driving on the highway. 3 Hours later, & 2 damaged tires, we’re headed home."

This comment brought me right back to Rodger Brand. And, yes, be watchful as you are driving near people with ladders or mattresses or couches or whatever attached to their cars or trucks.

 

 

Here we go again Highway 40

Back in, I think, 2007, MODOT closed a large stretch of Highway 40 (64) for construction and replacement of some bridges. This did not end until 2010. We lived in Clayton those years and travel was tiresome. We rejoiced with thousands of other drivers when this was completed. Now MoDOT is hoping to close Highway 40 from Kingshighway to Jefferson to repair or replace 13 bridges which cross the highway.

According to MoDOT the bridge roads are in bad repair and need replacing. Highway 40 is a major east west road through St Louis and shutting down that stretch is going to be 2007 all over again. I've had to head back east to Collinsville from Concordia Seminary several times recently, mostly during the afternoon rush hour and the streets entering the highway are packed. Closing those miles is going to make the surface streets a nightmare once again.

It's possible to make a way to I-44 to downtown and back, but it won't be easy.

A Panic Inducing Bridge

This is one of those "I never knew this" articles. Denmark has an 8 kilometer bridge connecting Copenhagen to the Swedish city of Malmo. That is almost 5 miles. What makes this different is that the end of the bridge becomes a 4 kilometer tunnel under the Flint Channel. That is 2 and a half miles. It looks beautiful, but I am not sure I could relax driving under the sea.

Photos at the link.

 

Pot holes and one big traffic jam

Yesterday afternoon we were headed over to Maryland Heights, Missouri to watch one of our grandsons' basketball game at Westminster Christian Academy. As we got on 55/70 from 157 we saw a huge backup of cars and semi's heading east. It the jam went almost to Black Lane and we decided right then if this held true coming home we'd get off at Black Lane to avoid this mess.

We did not know until later that evening what caused all this. Turns out it was the result of a number of pot holes in the middle lane just about right over Collinsville's Belt Line Road. IDOT closed two lanes to attempt to fill and fix the holes which they believed could have caused major damage and possibly injury to cars and people if they hit the holes.

In any event, hopefully they finished this job and got traffic moving. Coming home we were able to get off at our normal exit only 157 without much trouble but the other through lanes still had a bit of a crowd although not as bad as earlier. Here is Fox2's report on this. It wasn't just one pot hole, it was a line of them in the center lane.

 

Big trucks

Dale and I left for the Huzzah cabin on Friday around noon after the snow stopped falling and the sun came out. The first issue we saw was on 55/70 right on the north edge of Collinsville. A number of semi's had skidded into the guard rails and stopped all traffic heading west. One of the trucks was hanging half over the rails. We saw this before we got to the interstate at 157 and saw traffic at a stand still and so headed for the highway entrance at Black Lane. Nothing was coming from the east because of the truck accidents so we got right on at that point.

The same day a semi crashed into a school bus in Chicago carrying players and coaches from a high school hockey team. 16 were injured, 3 critically. After being hit, the bus flipped onto its side, ejecting at least one student, while the driver kept driving until he careened into a ditch off the freeway an eighth of a mile from the crash site, police said.

The semi driver was arrested later that day for driving drunk. He ran a red light and crashed into a school bus carrying an out-of-state high school hockey team, knocking it onto its side and leaving more than a dozen people on board with injuries.

This is one of the awful issues with semi's and as we headed down 44 there was one semi after another in all lanes speeding along, often passing other semi's and cars. They dominate the highways. It's a very dangerous time to share the road with these trucks which have become way too tall, way too wide and way too long. Anyone who passes or gets passed by a tractor trailer these day knows how small and vulnerable we are in a car.

Sharing the road going and coming, even on Sunday afternoon, was nerve wracking. I know full well they are driving these trucks above the speed limits. My opinion is there just has to be some plan in place to cut the size of these trucks down and do more to slow them down.. Anyone in a car is not going to do well if one skids into you. But they now own our interstates and this is not a good thing at all. And, when they get into cities the space they take up on normal streets in just beyond belief.

The truck driver in Chicago was drunk and driving what could well be termed a vehicle weapon.

Oh, I-44 you are a pain

Traffic is jammed for miles on I-44 in south St. Louis and beyond. It seems a semi jackknifed in the west bound lanes.

Here is an overhead view of the mess taken from Fox2Now's traffic copter.

This does not surprise me at all. We take 44 down to our place in the Huzzah and any day of the week or time of day, the highway is filled with way too huge semi's speeding along, changing lanes without warning, hanging on our bumper. There are too many times when they are on both sides of us, in front and behind all traveling way too fast for their size.

Two views of Paris

Our oldest grandson is in Europe with members of his Lutheran South High School class and he has been sending back photos. Yesterday we received two very different views of Paris. The first was of a gorgeous cathedral, the name of which he neglected to mention. The second picture is of something he called the highlight of the trip-a Nike Store.

Are we going north or south?

I'd long heard the saying about the direction of highway numbers was: "evens run east to west and odds run north to south."  But it wasn't until yesterday when a friend of mine posted two American highway maps with these routes. It is most certainly true about the evens and odds.

Traffic like I've never ever seen

I had to go over to St. Louis this morning and left around 9:30 which is normally a good time to go traffic wise. But as soon as I merged onto 55/70 from Collinsville I saw every one of the 3 lanes filled with bumper to bumper cars and trucks. Frankly I have never driven on a highway so filled. And, most of the vehicles were the huge semi trucks with a car maybe squeezed between now and then. I mean, all 3 lanes bumper to bumper and nothing moving more than 5 miles an hour. As I headed into a curve I saw the same endless lines of big trucks and some cars. Same going up or down a small hill. 5 miles an hour or no miles an hour at some points.

This did not end until we passed route 203. I finally learned from KMOX radio that IDOT started repairing some concrete wall along the interstate at Route 203 this morning and two left lanes were shut down before that point. When I came home noon, all that traffic was gone, it was smooth sailing westbound. So, IDOT completed the work and opened it up later in the morning. But my issue is, why the heck did they not do this work later in the morning rather than during the morning rush hours? It made no sense.

And, where were all those trucks coming from? We always see semi's on that road, but never in this kind of numbers. I got to wondering whether most of them were heading back west after being part of a truck demonstration in Washington DC. I just don't know, but it was awful driving...or not actually driving. Sitting and crawling.

Here is a picture I took when we were at a stand still. The same or worse image was in my rear view mirror.

Another bad part of all this was once the road opened up to normal speed, half the cars and trucks just stepped hard on the gas and it was a free for all of reckless speed.

This snow is not fun

KIds may like the major snow we have been getting for the third day, but boy, it makes things really hard. I'd like to be outside moving it, but there is just too much for me and Dale. The city plow came through a few minutes ago, but only cleared one side of the street. Weird.

We have food, no big deal, but most likely the grocery stores will be closed today again. Which is good policy. But once it gets to the point where we can all get out, we'll be heading for the grocery stores in big numbers again. I feel real sympathy for those workers, they just can't catch a break. First Thanksgiving, followed by Football playoff parties, then Christmas and new years, more football parties and now snow shopping.

We have several meal options still in fridge, freezer and cabinets, but it won't last forever. Looks like the snow wants to last forever, however.

The American Legion has pull for sure. They must have contracted plowing by a guy in a white pick-up truck. He cleared their lot yesterday afternoon and he's back already this morning. They aren't even open for anything today and if they go ahead with tomorrow's fish fry there is plenty of time to get things plowed tomorrow.