Statement by designer explains a lot...

When I was with a large paving outfit I became very familiar with the "pre-pre" meetings with the highway department and their design staff. One particular job required demolition and reconstruction of a roadway while maintaining traffic (don't they all). The initial "suggested" construction sequence specified construction of 1/2 the roadway at a time, with the traffic being compressed on the undisturbed remainder. This looked good until I realized that a temporary detour (shoo-fly) would be required to be demolished and rebuilt three separate times. When I brought this up, I got a lot of deer-in-headlight looks with crickets chirping in the background.

It took a room full of "designers" almost an hour to understand something that a dumb-ass surveyor saw in a few seconds.

Same kind of deal here, except the difference in the new grade adjacent to the existing road where traffic will be is about 20'.

This has been around for a while but it's still funny. I just wish I could find where to send my application.

SNARE Membership Drive.

A group of unidentified individuals have gathered together to form the Secret National Association of Re-Engineers, or SNARE for short. Eligible applicants include anyone that is not a Professional Engineer but spend a portion of their time fixing the mistakes and problems caused by Engineers. Although a background with formal training in Engineering may be helpful, only common sense is required.

The existence of the Association shall be public but the identity of it's members will remain secret to prevent the State Engineering Board from hunting them down.

Members on an individual basis will not be practicing Engineering but will be fixing the problems of Engineers that need more practice. As an Association, members will compile evidence on offending Engineers and present it to the proper board for action. They will be SNAREd.

A list of Engineers that need to be SNAREd will be compiled and made available to the members. This will allow members to avoid jobs involving the worst offenders or encourage them to document problems thoroughly as the job progresses in hopes of getting more SNAREs.

Registered Professional Engineers wishing to clean up their profession may join as Associate members. They may take on an advisory role but will not be allowed to vote or have access to the membership roster.

I've been a member of SNARE for 42 years !!

In the metropolitan areas I think the traffic staging planning and temporary measures to keep the traffic moving is more amazing than the engineering and new construction. I visit L.A. now and then and am amazed that 5 lanes of traffic is moving north bound while a flyover is being built above. They add a new bridge to I-5 in Oregon and we have a traffic snafu for two years. Scales of economies I guess. Jp

We are about to have about 1.5 miles of elevated I-20/59 in downtown Birmingham closed for two years while the decking is replaced. ALDOT's "plan" is to move traffic to surface streets or to I-459 which will add at least 15 miles to a trip and nearly double the traffic count on an already overwhelmed I-65.

I can not remember a time when there was no major construction happening in Dallas on either I30 or I20 or the LBJ Freeway.

Steve Gilbert, post: 357420, member: 111 wrote: We are about to have about 1.5 miles of elevated I-20/59 in downtown Birmingham closed for two years while the decking is replaced. ALDOT's "plan" is to move traffic to surface streets or to I-459 which will add at least 15 miles to a trip and nearly double the traffic count on an already overwhelmed I-65.

The last time I went thru Birmingham, the traffic was all messed up. I think it was 1980 and I was pulling a travel trailer.

Steve, when is that to start. I'm working northwest of town (nearly to Jasper) for a while and I want to be long gone before that starts.

Andy

This reminds me of the country that wanted to switch from driving on the left to driving on the right.

One suggestion was to have the trucks do it first for two weeks.

A group of unidentified individuals have gathered together to form the Secret National Association of Re-Engineers, or SNARE for short. Eligible applicants include anyone that is not a Professional Engineer but spend a portion of their time fixing the mistakes and problems caused by Engineers. Although a background with formal training in Engineering may be helpful, only common sense is required.

Where can I sign up? Can I get a secret certificate of membership?

I think I might be the only member of Beerleg, in the USA anyway, that has to compete with engineers for survey work. I also have to have my surveys reviewed and approved by an engineer before recording.

In the early stages of building a 4 lane highway, I was asked to redesign the grades around a catch basin that was built too high. I realized that the design plans had finish grades at 0.004 % (0.00004). A design engineer had gotten confused between "grade" and "percent grade". I explained this at a meeting with all the engineers (contractor, DPW, FHA) but no one would listen. It finally got built OK, but I know there was a great cost to do so.

Iceman, post: 357333, member: 579 wrote: I've been a member of SNARE for 42 years !!

So much for the anonymity.

My Aunt worked for a firm and was charged with designing a road to a turbine site. She was given dimensions, clearances and turning radii. She did a fine job designing the road, then turned to ask, so how will they get the vehicle here. Every overhead pass on the highway is less than 14' and the vehicle requires 16+ feet. He supervisor told her that was not their problem. I do not believe the turbine was ever installed.

Andy Bruner, post: 357450, member: 1123 wrote: Steve, when is that to start. I'm working northwest of town (nearly to Jasper) for a while and I want to be long gone before that starts.

Andy

They already have removed one overpass and are replacing it to widen the highway and add new exit ramps. The main work might begin this fall but there are lawsuits filed to force ALDOT to consider alternate routes.

Some years ago the project was to upgrade the older Interstate emergency telephone pullouts. The plan was to strip the pole facilities, move them to storage, build the new turnouts about a hundred feet further along the road, tear out the old turnouts, and move the pole facilities from storage to the new location.

I said, why not build the new turnouts, move the pole facilities a hundred feet to the new location, then tear out the old turnouts. Much simpler and faster. There was silence in the room.