stevewaclo
03-25-2010, 12:03 AM
OK Gang, stay with me on this one. We don't have a B.S. category in the Forum, so General Chat will have to do :lol:.
As many probably know, NVDOT is taking a serious look at preventing accidents and delays resulting from high profile vehicles being blown over by high winds roaring down the Carson Range into Washoe Valley. If you have been down to Carson City via US 395, you've undoubedly noticed enormous warning signs at the north and south end of the valley to advise of dangerous wind conditions. Not too surprisingly, some big rigs, for a variety of reasons, have choose to ignore the warnings and end up on their sides. Mercifully, first responders have not found anything crushed under the trailers, but concluding it's only a matter of time until something truly unplesant happens, NVDOT has launched a study to investigate options, and is encouraging public input.
Because homeowners along Old US 395 on the west side, closer to the mountains are not too keen about big rigs on their road and Eastlake Blvd. is unsuitable for heavy trucks (without expensive modifications), one of many options being considered is construction of appropriately sized parking lots, large enough to act as staging areas for high profile vehicles until conditions improve. Don't laugh...the cost of road closures during clean-up as well as potential for the aforementioned tragedy are significant (see RGJ article, below), and NVDOT is open to considering all options.
Here's my plan. The link below will take you to a survey that NVDOT has devised to learn more about the public's thoughts on this issue. And here's the good part: one of the questions asks "how do you feel about the construction of parking lots to hold flagged vehicles till conditions improve?" I don't know how big those lots would need to be (bigger the better, I say and available space does not appear to be an issue) or how likely it would be for NVDOT to play nice and share their lots on weekends, or if sharing is even a possibility (hey, we could clear out really fast and it's not like Washoe Zephyr conditions sneak up on anyone), but faced with slip, slidin' all over Stead for the forseeable future, I propose we all head on over to:
http://www.nevadadot.com/wind/
and do our duty as concerned citizens :).
Also, there are some essay questions in the survey and we all know how much folks like to have their own words fed back to them so here's a recent RGJ article, with quotes from actual NVDOT engineers to ponder that should help with those pesky "comments" sections :D:
http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010100307026
And somebody needs to hack into NVDOT and get traffic numbers for US 395/Washoe Valley (preferably broken down by North/South), some numbers on footprint/rig, estimated total parked rigs, etc. Also, I'm thinking Porta-Potties and concession stands :lol:. We've gotta do a quick reality check on lot size...definately ain't gonna be Stead but they would need to design to "worst case".
Just trying to think outside the box :idea:. Let's talk.
Hmmm...maybe I should have held off on this till April 1st :lol:.
As many probably know, NVDOT is taking a serious look at preventing accidents and delays resulting from high profile vehicles being blown over by high winds roaring down the Carson Range into Washoe Valley. If you have been down to Carson City via US 395, you've undoubedly noticed enormous warning signs at the north and south end of the valley to advise of dangerous wind conditions. Not too surprisingly, some big rigs, for a variety of reasons, have choose to ignore the warnings and end up on their sides. Mercifully, first responders have not found anything crushed under the trailers, but concluding it's only a matter of time until something truly unplesant happens, NVDOT has launched a study to investigate options, and is encouraging public input.
Because homeowners along Old US 395 on the west side, closer to the mountains are not too keen about big rigs on their road and Eastlake Blvd. is unsuitable for heavy trucks (without expensive modifications), one of many options being considered is construction of appropriately sized parking lots, large enough to act as staging areas for high profile vehicles until conditions improve. Don't laugh...the cost of road closures during clean-up as well as potential for the aforementioned tragedy are significant (see RGJ article, below), and NVDOT is open to considering all options.
Here's my plan. The link below will take you to a survey that NVDOT has devised to learn more about the public's thoughts on this issue. And here's the good part: one of the questions asks "how do you feel about the construction of parking lots to hold flagged vehicles till conditions improve?" I don't know how big those lots would need to be (bigger the better, I say and available space does not appear to be an issue) or how likely it would be for NVDOT to play nice and share their lots on weekends, or if sharing is even a possibility (hey, we could clear out really fast and it's not like Washoe Zephyr conditions sneak up on anyone), but faced with slip, slidin' all over Stead for the forseeable future, I propose we all head on over to:
http://www.nevadadot.com/wind/
and do our duty as concerned citizens :).
Also, there are some essay questions in the survey and we all know how much folks like to have their own words fed back to them so here's a recent RGJ article, with quotes from actual NVDOT engineers to ponder that should help with those pesky "comments" sections :D:
http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010100307026
And somebody needs to hack into NVDOT and get traffic numbers for US 395/Washoe Valley (preferably broken down by North/South), some numbers on footprint/rig, estimated total parked rigs, etc. Also, I'm thinking Porta-Potties and concession stands :lol:. We've gotta do a quick reality check on lot size...definately ain't gonna be Stead but they would need to design to "worst case".
Just trying to think outside the box :idea:. Let's talk.
Hmmm...maybe I should have held off on this till April 1st :lol:.