Dear Mahatma: How come the lights don’t go to flashing red at Markham and Victory when conditions are nasty? Coming east - downhill - on Markham in the snow and ice is, well, yikes!
- Downtown Commuter
Conditions have been nasty about once a week this winter. Or so it seems.
We (figuratively) slid over to the office of Bill Henry, the city’s traffic engineering manager, for his views. He says recommended practice is to not flash signals in such a circumstance because of an increase in the rate of accidents.
Signals go flashing red only when they aren’t working properly.
Sticking with the topic of nasty conditions, we got some information about snow routes in Little Rock from Ben Thielemier, the city’s communications and marketing manager. Earlier in the week, as ice covered the jonquils bold enough to bloom, Thielemier alerted news organizations to how the Public Works Department was working faster than Lucy and Ethel in a chocolate factory.
Tell us more, we said, even though we know, deep in our hearts, that the most recent winter storm WAS THE LAST ONE. WE MEAN IT!
Thielemier responded with a brief description of how the city prioritizes the job. The priorities are in three parts.
First, to help emergency services such as ambulance, fire and police agencies.
Second, to clear one lane in each direction on the city’s eight snow routes.
Third, after clearing the snow routes, the sand and salt trucks work on residential streets adjacent to the snow routes.
Residential streets are prioritized based on past history of problems such as steep hills, traffic count and information received via the city’s 311 service request line.
Thielemier sent along a map with the eight snow routes, each one in a different color. Being cynical and suspicious by nature - 39 years in the newspaper business will do that to a guy - we studied the map to see if the routes favored certain parts of town and disregarded others.
That does not appear to be the case. The routes are spread all over the city.
North to south to east to west to the downtown area, which was represented by lots of seriously squiggly red lines. Streets on the snow routes appear to be the usual main roads: Markham, from one end to the other. Kanis Road.
Chicot Road. John Barrow Road. Chenal Parkway. Too many to name.
Now, dear reader, you are more informed.
Remember this for the coming winter. Because there will be NO MORE ice and snow this winter.
Dear Mahatma: A project to add two lanes to a small stretch of U.S. 64 at the west edge of Wynne has been underway for a long time. What’s up with this?
- Dennis
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department says the job will widen about a half-mile of U.S. 64 to five lanes. Cost is $4.78 million.
Work is more than 85 percent complete. Job to be finished by the end of this month.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/08/2014