A surveyor??Groupie?? wants to know. Seeing abandoned streets. ?ÿCan you guys take advantage of this?
Sorry.?ÿ I couldn't help but chuckle at the word "congestion".?ÿ Those of us who live and work in the boonies barely recognize that word for any purpose other than describing a sinus or lung ailment.?ÿ For me, traffic congestion is when I need to make a left turn off of a two-lane highway onto a county road or driveway and I must wait for one vehicle to get out of the way before I safely make my turn.
Most of my work is in rural areas.?ÿ I haven't noticed any more or any less traffic than usual.?ÿ However with school being out I have seen a great number of shool aged folks mowing, discing, feeding cattle and taking care of the general chores one finds in rural areas.?ÿ?ÿ
I live on a local major east and west Texas Highway 77 and traffic has slowed 90% from normal down to commercial and delivery vehicles and the few personal vehicles headed for medicine or groceries.
Like Paden Cash stated, congested traffic is a rare event in this county. It happens only when lanes are closed for maintenance and everyone must wait their turn to use the one open lane for travel.
Drove 75 MPH around the DC beltway at 7:30 yesterday morning.?ÿ Felt like The Omega Man...just had to get safely back before dark
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Many years ago I worked at a facility with about 1400 employees, many of whom rode in car pools.?ÿ There were four different exits but two of those fed onto the same highway.?ÿ There were two start/end times such that about 1000 left 30 minutes ahead of those of us in the 400 count.?ÿ If you headed to the parking lot at the exact second of quitting time you might end up in a lineup of 30 cars all waiting to turn onto the highway that was also being added to by the other exit a mile away.?ÿ I made it a habit to take an extra five minutes or so to chat with co-workers or stay at my desk or make a stop in the restroom before heading out.?ÿ That would get it down to five or fewer vehicles ahead of me.?ÿ That was congestion.
Worked at another place that was directly across the street from a large and rather busy cemetery.?ÿ On occasion when I needed to go somewhere during the standard work day I would get stuck in our little driveway waiting for a funeral procession to go by.?ÿ That was congestion.?ÿ I didn't really mind it though because it reminded me how lucky I was to not be in the lead vehicle or even one of those following.
On Monday I took a trailer load of cattle to the auction barn 30 miles from my place.?ÿ Over 20 miles of that was on a US highway.?ÿ My speed was from about 45 to 50 mph.?ÿ I was passed only once and that was a huge dump truck.?ÿ Most of the traffic was semis and work-related vehicles.?ÿ This was in the 10 to 11 a.m. time frame.?ÿ No one passed me on the return trip as I was running over 65 mph.
It would be a good time to get one of those urban site location surveys for a Main Street type project. Those we usually do late at night when traffic and parked cars are gone. Alas we don't have one of those, money has dried up even before the virus so nothing is on the schedule and ones we did a few years back are still on the back burner for funding for construction so I don't see anything coming up this year.?ÿ
Outside the "urban" areas it's business as usual.?ÿ
@holy-cow you crack me up. Thanks - I needed this.
@mightymoe - It would be a good time for some infrastructure money to hit to get you guys back on the streets.
Last one we did for the old stimulus bill got shelved so deep they made us destroy our data.
There were big dreams of constructing wildlife crossings but it never happened.
I did lots of static control for the sites and drove many thousands of miles to lay out that control got it all finished and they pulled the plug. At least I got my share, I had no interest in the construction phase which never happened except for one little project which another firm was doing.
As far as street work, we keep busy laying out subdivisions and then sometimes staking the build. Those are nice, no bids, no hard hats, no steel toe boots, no safety glasses, in fact there is no equipment when we are there except for rare occasions. Private development for blank ground is soooooo much better than public.
It would be a good time for some infrastructure money to hit to get you guys back on the streets.
Does anyone remember "shovel-ready" in 2008? It didn't work very well then, and I would not expect it to work - in the short term - now.?ÿ?ÿ
Remember it well. I helped our County receive a cool $500,000 to boost our local economy on a five-year project that was in about year two at the time. About 50 cents of that money was spent locally. Ten percent was skimmed of the top by the state DOT before the remainder was placed in a lock box to only be spent for specific things. Those specific things ended up being performed by people in remote locations who were buddy-buddy with the DOT. No new local jobs were created. No locally produced materials were used beyond those already in the design prior to "shovel-ready".
Personally, I've chosen to stay away from field work for a while.?ÿ We saw this shelter in place coming and I have several maps to work on, and some office chores that I've been putting off.?ÿ My office is on this State Highway, a relatively busy street that easily can be backed up for a half mile during commute hours and its been no where near that volume. Although it has been steadily increasing this week as people the whether is nice and people are suffering cabin fever. Weird seeing people moving around with masks on.?ÿ Nothing I do is essential at the moment and since both of us are seniors we choose to lay low.?ÿ
I took the photo yesterday because perhaps someone here recognizes the survey crew. They have been working up and down the highway for a couple of weeks each time setting their robot up in what I would call a compromised location. This particular point is in a bus lane, on the inside of a corner that trucks turning right would have a hard time missing it or making it. And no signage. Back sight is no better positioned. Only thing I can think of is that they (2-man crew) want some new equipment.?ÿ ?ÿ
^Things are not looking good when your traverse points are so bad that passing surveyors take pictures of them.
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I saw three different crews out yesterday when I drove out the to burbs to go to the beach, for Cleveland that is a lot. One was working on a typically busy thoroughfare, the other two were doing some high end residential on a street which may be pretty mellow most of the time, hard to say.
One crew was a three man operation of grey beards, two dudes running rods and one at the gun with a full size clipboard in one hand. Been a while since I have seen such gatherings in the wild.
Made me wonder if folks at the top of the residential market are getting motivated.
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@james-fleming Yes it is. Specifically west end of Kenmore.