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Exit 1 I 91...Towards The Town
Authored by: Terry Martin on Tuesday, March 25 2008 @ 05:27 AM EDT
Okay ... so have you reported it to the Agency of Transportation in Dummerston?
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"Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on." R.Kennedy
Authored by: Timmy on Tuesday, March 25 2008 @ 09:21 AM EDT
I really like this photo.
The symmetry is satisfying and calming, yet the scene evokes a flavor of
post-apocalyptic desertion of human-made structures... no cars on the
road make it even more satisfying, yet begs the question of when it was
taken... even what year.
The perfect blue sky is striking, at once hopeful but also stark in it's lack
of definition, adding to the sense of isolation I think.
I'm wondering if the slightly crumbling structure is hinting also at a
culture of neglect for infrastructure... or am I reading too much into it?
Authored by: MMulligan on Tuesday, March 25 2008 @ 09:36 AM EDT
Terry,
I had the highway supervisor call me yesterday 3/24...and this was one of the issues we talked about. Don’t see any concrete debris on the ground underneath the ugly wound...somebody cleaned it up and knows about it.
Authored by: Maus Anon E on Tuesday, March 25 2008 @ 10:06 AM EDT
Or perhaps it has deteriorated bit by bit,
tiny grains and pebbles falling off over a half century,
each tiny crumb of debris falling unnoticed, eventually to be whisked away and redeposited elsewhere
by a gust of wind or the whirling blades of lawn care equipment.
Or maybe it was built that way; to mimic its aging surroundings.
Authored by: Terry Martin on Tuesday, March 25 2008 @ 05:14 PM EDT
Hey Mike,
GREAT ... glad you contacted them! Did they give any kind of date in the "Capitol Improvement" plan as to when they were going to patch or fix it?
Great shots also ... what kind of camera are you using ... can see all the cracks and fragmentation very clearly.
Terry
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"Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on." R.Kennedy
Authored by: MMulligan on Tuesday, March 25 2008 @ 10:17 AM EDT
I took it on Good Friday 3/21/08.
I think it’s a culture of dishonesty....like this is the amount we are going to spend on infrastructure...and if we then don’t have enough to spend on fixing the rest of it or making it safe for us...then we hide it.
I worry the AOT has become so numbed by their forced political choices...they taken so many chances.....that they are walking towards a bridge collapse somewhere state wide. These things are so difficult to stop....you almost need a horrific accident as proof that there is systemic issue.
I think those safety guard rails are non functional throughout the bridge...the anchor bolts holding them in the concrete will pull right out with little force or big chunks of concrete will fall right off in the crash...as with the car.
Authored by: MMulligan on Tuesday, March 25 2008 @ 10:46 AM EDT
This is what drives me crazy. It is going on in all the state and federal agencies. Mostly what bothers me, it going on in all the “good peoples” minds in America?
That idea, that acceptance....that the limits of a budget or a list of budgetary priorities is the only arbiter of morality. We value money more than we value human life...a paper list is more important than human life.
I mean in other words...the budgetary list they serve becomes their “god”.
We seen it across the nation in a institutional scope...where the good people will follow budgetary orders without any qualms what so ever. We love the simplicity of following orders... and it never threatens our employment.
State Transportation Secretary Neil Lunderville told us Wednesday that the condition of Brattleboro's main roads "is not uncommon to what I'm seeing all around the state." He tempered that by adding that while everyone wants safe and smooth roads, AOT has to balance the growing list of repairs with "the very limited budget that we have."
Authored by: MMulligan on Tuesday, March 25 2008 @ 12:03 PM EDT
Yes absolutely...it lets the mind wander with what is the meaning of it. Yep, that first picture is best.
I had to deal later with some brutish technical details.
I really do like the question of...how safe is our societal safety barriers (guard rails and anchor bolts). Those safety devices that nobody thinks about way in the background noises of our lives that you can’t hear.
Who can we trust to tell us the truth?
That symbolism of the cracked concrete around the “guard rails” of our lives...we carelessly go across these safety devices ever day...one that we are never allowed or have the time to see...
I mean, these highway safety “guard rails” are everywhere...we see them so many times in our days...and thus they are also nowhere. They are so ubiquitous in our lives, used only at critical moments, challenged only when we are at high speeds and spinning widely out of control. We never really know if they will be able to carry out their design function....we never think about it.
Nobody knows it they will be able to perform their design function...is it just an illusion...the cracks in that concrete just sits their wasting and waiting for their moments of testing....when the world is spinning around us, our kids are screaming in our ears...and we are utterly out of control.
When we are at our loves ones most vulnerable points in their lives. The cracks in the concrete just sitting there for a careless eternity.
Nobody cares about our moments of stark terror and pain!
Authored by: MMulligan on Tuesday, March 25 2008 @ 06:32 PM EDT
Terry,
Remember, I didn’t make an attempt to contact the AOT. They called me out of nowhere. I appreciate that though.
It was kind of a tense conversation...the supervisor was answering my question with simple answers. I’ll bet you he is on my side...but he is going to feel the brunt of the problems with the pictures. I feel sorry for all the trouble I am causing everyone. I hope he calls me back.
I took it with a Canon PowerShot A520. It‘s a nice and easy camera.
You know they are taxing us indirectly...with all damage they are doing with our cars. I’d like to get an interview with a car repair shop...with them explaining how much damage it’s costing us to repair our cars.
Authored by: MMulligan on Tuesday, March 25 2008 @ 10:00 PM EDT
I was already warned, if they caught me playing up there on the highway again they were going to arrest me. I felt a little rushed. He meant it...you could hear it in his voice.
Authored by: MMulligan on Wednesday, April 09 2008 @ 12:51 AM EDT
Bridge repairs on list, in limbo
"It's like saying which of your children are you not going to feed supper to tonight," he said.
While the Regional Planning Commission added the Ripley Bridge replacement as a priority last year, Richard Baker, the Brandon representative to the Rutland Region Transportation Council — which works under the Rutland Regional Planning Commission — said he couldn't imagine which project his council would take out in favor of the bridge.
"It's like saying which of your children are you not going to feed supper to tonight," he said.
Please reply to the comment rather than putting them all at the end
Authored by: Floyd on Wednesday, April 09 2008 @ 01:22 AM EDT
Yo MMulligan
if you use "reply to this" we might have a better understanding of what it is you are trying to respond to. Every thread you post more than one response on becomes a confusing mess and I for one check out when I see five responses in a row from the same person responding to posts farther up the chain.
Authored by: SirCoßn on Wednesday, April 09 2008 @ 09:02 PM EDT
Hey Mike. How about some pictures of the bridges here in N.H. Why are you over there all the time focusing on theirs?
Oh thats right. Our bridges get fixed. Like the new one on Rt9. N.H. actually spends their transportation money on transportation. Not the social laboratory like Vermont.
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Community should be voluntary it should not be forced on an individual by government.
Authored by: MMulligan on Friday, April 11 2008 @ 12:00 AM EDT
I wonder how much how much the Brattleboro paving work is going to cost the AOG. We see the Putney rood project is going to be a veneer. Barre Vt is not at all ticked off with not being included on the 3 million dollar budget. Seems they are on the 58 million dollar budget. The intention was until the Barre official opened his big mouth...their north end of town project was going to be speeded up morphing into a full road bed job.
The AOT agency head is backtracking...it’s got to go through the legislature...the Barre mayor is saying wink, wink...it’s a done deal. You think you are first on the special list.
Was the brat officials notified before today’s press conference...the Barre mayor was informed yesterday that his project was going to be firth coming?
Did the legislators’ feed the big cities with highway projects in the initial budget...felt guilty coming up with the little town $3 million dollar....then later on the politically connected will get large budget road projects addendums?
Paving program announces targeted roads
3:33 p.m.
April 10, 2008
The Associated Press MONTPELIER — A special state paving program has announced which of Vermont’s roughest roads will be patched and filled this spring.
Gov. Jim Douglas announced “Operation Smooth Ride” two weeks ago amid complaints that this was an unusually bad spring for potholes and frost heaves.
On Thursday, the Agency of Transportation announced which road sections will share in the special, $3 million pot of money.
They range from Route 5, Putney Road, in Brattleboro, to an eight-mile stretch of Vermont Route 108 between Fletcher and Enosburg.
Article published Apr 10, 2008
Mayor hits speed bump with paving plans
State says Lauzon premature with his announcement
By David Delcore Times Argus Staff
BARRE – State officials are expected to announce the beneficiaries of Operation Smooth Ride later today, but Barre Mayor Thomas Lauzon isn't holding his breath.
This week Lauzon said the city won't be among the communities whose roads will receive extra attention under the $3 million program that was recently proposed in response to a particularly severe winter that has taken its toll on the state's transportation network.
"The City of Barre will not be on that list," Lauzon said, suggesting those who have complained about the condition of North Main Street needn't fear.
"The good news is we're on the big list," Lauzon said. "We're on the $58 million list."
Contacted Wednesday, Lauzon acknowledged he may have been "overly optimistic" in discussing the state's plans to repave the northern-most section of North Main Street, but he remained hopeful funding for the project would in fact be available this summer. "It's going to happen," he said of a project that would require a 10 percent local match.
It’s interesting...does the reformer who how to write stories that will illicit information, or do they just write the stories about just the facts mam. We haven’t gotten any dollars numbers yet? No list of the work on what’s going to be done on the regular paving list.
You wonder why the legislators are so quiet...they don’t give you an overview?
Everyone sees how that Barre Mayer keeps his name and issues in the news. Who is the media spokesman for Brattleboro...who responsible for keeping their voice and face in the media?
That’s what is missing isn’t it...that flamboyant recognizable Brattleboro face and voice...who expresses the sentiment, problems and concerns of the community...a camera hog or written media hog....who opens up the community for insiders and outsiders.
Barre mayor gets an asterisk - for paving potential
April 11, 2008
By David Delcore Times Argus Staff
BARRE – The squeaky wheel gets the … asterisk.
Thursday the state Agency of Transportation released its recommended paving program for this year and Barre's pothole-pocked North Main Street was on it – albeit with an asterisk.
Credit Mayor Thomas Lauzon who lobbied long and hard for the agency to fast track its plans to repave the crumbling strip of state highway that runs through downtown Barre.
Now it's up to local lawmakers to make sure the $1.7 million project isn't a late-session casualty, according to Lauzon, who said Thursday he has already contacted members of Barre's delegation.
Authored by: MMulligan on Friday, April 11 2008 @ 07:15 PM EDT
I am more confused that ever...The AOT declares Ludlow and Brattleboro are the only ones on the list for the 3 million dollar road project, with today saying it covering 80 miles of roads.
One newspaper says the road are for roads that have been hammered and in terrible shape...while the other says
Argus...“Zicconi said maximizing the emergency spending package meant focusing on roads already in decent condition.”
Brat...Locally, the hardest hit portions of Route 5 through Brattleboro will see the majority of the work, said Zicconi, and not the whole road.
Brat..."Our pavement crews literally traveled the entire state to identify where this work will be done," Neale Lunderville, secretary of the Agency of Transportation, said at a news conference Thursday.
"The record-breaking winter ravaged pavement from Enosburg to Brattleboro, so we want to make sure we improve roadways in every corner of the state."
Bratt...."Getting years of life out of these treatments is important," said Lunderville. "We don't want to lay new pavement over poor roadway segments that in a year's time will break up so it looks like nothing was done. We asked our crews to identify road segments that not only are in disrepair, but whose underlying condition is still in good enough shape to serve as a strong base for the new blacktop."
"Getting years of life out of these treatments is important," said Lunderville. "We don't want to lay new pavement over poor roadway segments that in a year's time will break up so it looks like nothing was done. We asked our crews to identify road segments that not only are in disrepair, but whose underlying condition is still in good enough shape to serve as a strong base for the new blacktop."
What he is saying, we sprinkled inadequate resources throughout the state...our roads will transition in thin multi layers of pavement...somebody will look at the roads crossly...and the whole thing will dissolve right in front of us. The classic butterfly effect.
There is really no proof...that this winter caused this. It might have speeded it up. Who is to say the same thing wouldn’t have happened in a normal winter or at the end of two normal winters. I think the weather is a contributory factor...with the maintenance of the road as one of the top factors.
Has there been a strategic change in the ways they keep up with road maintenance over the years? Has there been a change in the make-up and chemicals of asphalt?
Did you see the letter to the editor in the BR titled “better pothole repair”? He said:
1) Inadequate procedures and process with filling potholes...insufficient preparations...wrong ingredients? (Hmm, Tasers)
2) Our roads aren’t designed for heavy trucks and logging trucks. Wonder what the weight limit is and have they allowed heaver trucks and cargoes. He says you raods are being damaged by logging trucks.
I’ve noticed most of the potholes have already a concave bump in it. A concave indentation in a road creates tremendous force on the edges of the hole. How come a pavement compactor or roller wasn’t used? What’s the best way to repair a road pothole...defined by actual engineering and scientific means.
Authored by: MMulligan on Friday, April 11 2008 @ 07:23 PM EDT
Inadequate pothole
patching or repairs quickly show signs of dishing, cracking or fail completely, creating the need for
repeated repairs, causing continued traffic delays, public scrutiny, and cost effective debates.
April 4, 2003
REPAIR OF POTHOLES WITH HOT MIX ASPHALT (HMA)
Richard O. Wolters, P.E.
MAPA Executive Director
Introduction
Introduction
The performance of a pavement (asphalt or concrete) is directly related to the condition of the base,
subgrade and specific material composition of the pavement type on which that pavement is placed.
The need for patching can occur for either an asphalt or concrete pavement. No type of pavement is
immune. Minnesotan.s are experiencing potholes (chuck holing) and beginning to assess the
damage to their roads (facilities) caused by the severe winter.
Technical terminology varies somewhat within each industry (asphalt vs. concrete) but a .patch. is
an area of the pavement that has been removed, replaced, or covered with new material. It is very
important to be done properly.
Under weather (1989)....The army corps of Engineers says we are to be wary with a series of warm winters lulls us into not maintaining our roads...with the return of a ruff winter effectively destroys a country’s whole roadway system within a month. It talks about the Netherlands which had a series of mild winters...a normal winter returned...and the spring warm-up uncovered unprecedented damage of roads throughout the country.
This is the result of global warming; it lulled us into a false sense of security...trick us into not caring for our raods, along with our simmering budget and political problems. Check out page 4 and 5.
We are involve in a huge political cover-up with what occurred.
This is a weather catastrophe....we should ask the president to declare us a disaster area needing special funding!
Authored by: mr.mike on Friday, April 11 2008 @ 09:16 PM EDT
Highway Fund: Under the State Constitution, all revenue in excess
of the necessary cost of collection and administration accruing to the State
from motor vehicle registration fees, operators’ licenses, gasoline road toll or
any other special charges or taxes with respect to the operation of motor
vehicles or the sale or consumption of motor vehicle fuels are appropriated
and used exclusively for the construction, reconstruction and maintenance of
public highways within this State, including the supervision of traffic thereon
and for the payment of the interest and principal of bonds issued for highway
purposes. All such revenues, together with federal grants-in-aid received by
the State for highway purposes are credited to the Highway Fund. While the
principal and interest on State highway bonds is charged to the Highway
Fund, the assets of this fund are not pledged to such bonds.
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"Taxes are the fees for belonging to the State of Vermont"......as was said by a Vermont Legislator
Authored by: MMulligan on Saturday, April 12 2008 @ 02:06 AM EDT
What the governor and legislator are saying...this is our budget and what we can afford. What they won’t tell you if they keep going like this...you will have an exponential increase of cost and road damage.
They should be saying this is all we can afford...we are going to have to make a terrible sacrifice....we will end up have so much road damage that we never be able to catch up with the upkeep of the road...or the magnitude of it will be mind numbing and approach us fast This isn’t a benign few potholes and spilt coffee...the damage to the roads could grow exponentially.
They are pretty good at computer modeling....how hard would it be to model a representative sample of our road bed throughout the state...the layering our road bed, the material property of asphalt, the weather and temperature effects and cycling. I’ll bet you could get pretty close to predicting the future degradation.
Wouldn’t you love to model the development of potholes.
Emergence
Associated with the idea of system is a principle called emergence. From the mutual interaction of the parts of a system there arise characteristics which can not be found as characteristic of any of the individual parts.
Stumbling across this as I did was most enlightening. It was probably in high school that I was first acquainted with the idea of synergy; the idea that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. And, for all the examples ever used, emergence never really hit me until I ran into the right example. The right example just happened to be water! Amazing it took so long since there's so much of it around.
One could study hydrogen and oxygen in isolation from each other forever and never discover the characteristic of wetness. Wetness is an emergent characteristic of the mutual interaction of hydrogen and oxygen when combined to produce the molecular form called water. One has to study the system to get a true understanding of wetness. Studying the parts will not provide an appropriate understanding.
A systems view is somewhat in contradiction to the concept of analysis, which is breaking things down into smaller pieces to simplify the study. Analysis brings with it the risk of potentially loosing the most relevant characteristics of the system, and possibly developing a less than complete understanding. Yes, analysis is an important technique, and at the same time another method of study is also warranted, something I have seen called anasynthis. Anasynthis being the study of the whole, and the parts, in the hopes of developing an appropriate level of understanding.
It is mind boggling thinking about how systems set this up, mostly blind.
Federal and state political systems.
Businesses and profits.
Economic systems...the slide into intensifying state and federal budget and tax problems
The approach of an economic catastrophe and depression.
Government bureaucracy...as the AOT.
Road maintenance strategy.
The material properties of asphalt.
The material properties of water and salt.
Our changing weather patterns....pulses.
I mean, we got these huge systems swinging around...where we end up having an inconceivable level of damage over our roadways in a few months...over a dispersed area in New England. Can we characterize this as a once ever hundred year accident.
What set the Netherlands off on their road to ruins?
It shatters me thinking about our inadequacies of energy sources and then global warming ...what negative or positive “emergence phenomena” will come out of our planet in transition?
I mean, the outcome of “emergence”...is a property, or interaction, because of the complexity of our world, the outcome is inconceivable.
Who could have conceived that biofuels, among other interaction, would have put the planet so quickly into a food crisis and the resulting chaos? It’s like our the roads dissolved in a few short months out of nowhere.
Is emergence the driver of evolution?
I mean if you had the planet over there and your person over here.... what would be the emergence phenomena of those two systems?
I drank too much coffee...I am going to have to focus here pretty quick.
Authored by: MMulligan on Sunday, April 13 2008 @ 12:07 AM EDT
Ok, MR NYT’s smarty pants...global warming won’t cause starvation. Starvation will happen because of riots and civil shrift of hungry people. I get it now!
Emergence phenomena...witch burning. Are we “witch burning at the stake”...figuratively...Vermont’s AOT agency head Lunderville or his spokesman?
April 13, 2008
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Extended Forecast: Bloodshed
Here’s a forecast for a particularly bizarre consequence of climate change: more executions of witches.
As we pump out greenhouse gases, most of the discussion focuses on direct consequences like rising seas or aggravated hurricanes. But the indirect social and political impact in poor countries may be even more far-reaching, including upheavals and civil wars — and even more witches hacked to death with machetes.
There is evidence that European witch-burnings in past centuries may also have resulted from climate variations and the resulting crop failures, economic distress and search for scapegoats. Emily Oster, a University of Chicago economist, tracked witchcraft trials and weather in Western Europe between 1520 and 1770 and found a close correlation: colder weather led to more crackdowns on witches.
In particular, Europe’s “little ice age” led to a sharp cooling in the late 1500s, and that corresponds to a renewal in witchcraft trials after a long lull. And there’s also micro-evidence: in one area, a brutally cold May in 1626 led outraged peasants to call for punishment of witches thought responsible. Some scholars have also argued that the Salem witch trials occurred after a particularly cold winter and economically difficult period.
So let’s remember that the stakes with climate change are broader than hotter summers or damaged beach houses. The most dire consequences of our denial and delay may include civil war — and even witch-killings — among the poorest peoples on earth.
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"Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on." R.Kennedy