Snow Prep Fail

[Jay 2K Winger]

Related to me by my dad today. He went up to Delaware yesterday (Friday) to visit his father.

Apparently, the weather forecast had predicted flurries for tomorrow (Sunday). So, the local DOT(s?) decided to prepare for the impending trouble by putting ... something on the Beltway to keep it from freezing.

Problem? There was no precipitation on the Beltway in that area. And whatever that "something" was, on the dry road, it made the road extremely slippery. Enough so that they had to SHUT DOWN THE BELTWAY.



Way to go, guys.

[Daskinor]

they use aspers up there. Its basically coal soot and the crap is a nightmare.

[Shalom]

Way to go, guys.

Reminds me of a screwup within NYCDOT some years back.

Early in the morning of March 19, 1992, it snowed, and they sent out trucks to salt the streets.

That day, quite a lot of people driving in Brooklyn wound up getting flat tires.

Upon investigation, it was found that instead of loading the trucks from the huge pile of rock salt at the DOT yard, some dumbass filled them up from the adjacent pile of crushed glass.

(This came from recycled bottles, which was used in manufacture of asphalt. Whoever located those piles side by side was an even bigger dumbass, of course.)

City was stonewalling for a couple days, but it became obvious that they knew about it when fleets of street-sweepers began criss-crossing Brooklyn on Saturday, when Sanitation usually takes the day off. They still pretended ignorance, though, until a City Council member lost her tires. Then they finally started reimbursing people.

[Tithera]

Same thing happened here. The weather forecasters said our snow would hit that week, but instead hit us this week. ODOT had been out the week before, calcifying the roads with a salt, calcium and water mix that they prefer here instead of salt (works better when put out early enough and doesn't cause too much slush). The bad thing about this is that when it's sprayed on the road and isn't met with snow or ice, it stays liquid until it either freezes, or in our case, it rains and washes it all away. The rain water mixing in with it made it even more slippery out and I def. didn't go anywhere unless I absolutely had to that whole week. Now the calcium is washed off and we're getting snow shower after snow shower. I have to shake my head at my fellow ODOTers, but remember that the guy in charge of doing all of this in our county is stupid when it comes to doing his job. Same guy who didn't think spraying the weeds was a good idea until AFTER me and my fellow college workers had already whipped every guardrail in the county. So yeah, not expecting much from them this winter. *sigh*

[Ironclad Alibi]

Apparently, the weather forecast had predicted flurries for tomorrow (Sunday). So, the local DOT(s?) decided to prepare for the impending trouble by putting ... something on the Beltway to keep it from freezing.

Problem? There was no precipitation on the Beltway in that area. And whatever that "something" was, on the dry road, it made the road extremely slippery. Enough so that they had to SHUT DOWN THE BELTWAY.

What happened was the contractor spread liquid magnesium on the beltway, a substance used for packed snow and ice, and is usually mixed with other stuff. It made the beltway very slippery. Here is the Washington Post article about it. Mrs. IA and I were on that part of the beltway around 7:30 when they were treating it with the regular sand/salt mix to counteract the magnesium.

[dalesys]

What happened was the contractor spread liquid magnesium on the beltway, a substance used for packed snow and ice, and is usually mixed with other stuff. It made the beltway very slippery. Here is the Washington Post article about it. Mrs. IA and I were on that part of the beltway around 7:30 when they were treating it with the regular sand/salt mix to counteract the magnesium.

Far be it from me to question the WP's expertise... It had to have been a magnesium compound.

Magnesium is a metal that melts at 1202°F... magnesium ribbon auto-ignites (in air) at about 1166°F and burns in water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen... with a flame temperature on the order of 5600°F.


Are there any roads left?

[LillFilly]

Makes me think how around here the city seems to double its workload by salting OVER the snow on the roads, finally plowing, then SALTING AGAIN. All you do is waste salt. But, here, heaven forbid if there is even an inch of snow on the ground YOU HAVE TO PLOW AND SALT DAMNIT OMG BECAUSE THERE'S SNOW ON THE GROUND!!! Geeze, every year it's like nobody has ever seen snow...

[eltf177]

We've got the same problem where I work. The citizens want bare asphalt from curb to curb so it's salt to melt/break up snow, plow and salt again. A lot of extra work for little gain.

A few years ago we also put down a liquid before snow despite the fact a number of people told the boss this was _not_ a good idea. According to our lawyer there were at least six wrecks deliberately attributable to this. His answer? Sue the manufacturer! Never did hear the outcome but I strongly suspect we had to pay all claims.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Far be it from me to question the WP's expertise... It had to have been a magnesium compound.

Magnesium is a metal that melts at 1202°F... magnesium ribbon auto-ignites (in air) at about 1166°F and burns in water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen... with a flame temperature on the order of 5600°F.

Are there any roads left?

If you wish to question the WP's expertise, you might be standing in line for a while.

The roads are still there, but your description of what should have happened with the pure magnesium makes me want to watch when they do it again.