Ruts on the hwy

[metallica]

Enough about the ruts, as Ole George said in the last Review the paving done on Bottomwood Lake is to put it in one word terrible. When I first took my truck down it from our road I thought something was wrong with my front end, turns out it's the road. I hope they haven't signed off of the contract because if they have this road is in big trouble. I paved most of my life and this is just disgusting.

[Not Bob]

The work can't be that bad it is probably someone from city hall brother in law that did it. They would always make sure they were getting good value for their money.

[Rwede]

Been up Beaver Lake Road lately to the cattleguard? Must have been the same brother-in-law contracted last year to "pave" the sections that are now washboard asphalt. Someone should be made to answer for that waste of DLC taxpayers' money!

[LoneWolf_53]

Been up Beaver Lake Road lately to the cattleguard? Must have been the same brother-in-law contracted last year to "pave" the sections that are now washboard asphalt. Someone should be made to answer for that waste of DLC taxpayers' money!

Probably a work of the same outfit, which shall go unnamed (starts with a "P"), that I see get used all too often, with the same resultant substandard finished product that's become their hallmark.

How such companies keep getting public dollars successfully is beyond me.

As a side note I also think it's well past time to stop resorting to resurfacing as it doesn't take a rocket scientist to note that it doesn't stand up and is a complete waste of money. If you're going to use tax dollars to fix roads then use a method that actually gives us some value for those dollars.

[metallica]

Been up Beaver Lake Road lately to the cattleguard? Must have been the same brother-in-law contracted last year to "pave" the sections that are now washboard asphalt. Someone should be made to answer for that waste of DLC taxpayers' money!

Probably a work of the same outfit, which shall go unnamed (starts with a "P"), that I see get used all too often, with the same resultant substandard finished product that's become their hallmark.

How such companies keep getting public dollars successfully is beyond me

Called lowbid and as for the P keep in the family and change the name, they have done this for years. Bottomwoods is just another example. As for Beaver that is not in the District that is Highways and I went up a week ago with my trailor and yes it is a piece of crap, should be gravel, but this was done long before the P.

[jason500]

Completely agree. The ruts are absolutely awful, and there should be no reason that these haven't been dealt with yet. The last heavy downpour we had, I was driving home and had just passed the giant blue ship (whatever that is anyway), and I was literally water plowing, and had a substantial amount of water flying over my headlights/hood.

I live in BC and work in Alberta, I drive HWY 1 almost 30 times a year, and have experienced some seriously torrential rainfalls while on these roads, and no where has been even as close as bad to the stretch between UBCO and Lake Country.

[LoneWolf_53]

Having recently obtained a vehicle of a class new to me, I noticed right away that those ruts are far more detrimental to short wheelbase types.

[Glacier]

I live in BC and work in Alberta, I drive HWY 1 almost 30 times a year, and have experienced some seriously torrential rainfalls while on these roads, and no where has been even as close as bad to the stretch between UBCO and Lake Country.

A major cause of ruts is the changing of speeds, either for curves or traffic lights. We have chip trucks pounding windy highway 6 every day, and thus the brand spanking new pavement put down this year will begin rutting and chipping up within a couple of years as trucks maneuver the tight corners. Similarly, the stop and go traffic up and down the Okanagan Valley (there is 1 traffic light on average every 3 km from Osoyoos to Vernon (a 180 km section of road). As a result, deep ruts form as trucks slow down and speed up at the various intersections as well as the various speed zone changes.

[LoneWolf_53]

Though I'm not disputing your theory Glacier, the fact of the matter is most other parts of Hwy 97 are nowhere near as rutted as the section of road from the airport through to just before The Jammery.

I agree that heavy trucks no doubt cause the greatest part of the damage, but then again I also feel that a large part of the problem has to do with shoddy road building in the first place.

If the layers under the road were built properly they'd be better able to handle the weight of chip trucks, logging trucks, or what have you.

There are no lights in the section that has the most damage, so they really are not a contributing factor in that part of the highway.

[Glacier]

^Yup, it could be bad pavement or bad road bed. One highways road engineer told me that the road beds build by Flyin' Phil lasted a lot longer than more modern roads, and he pointed out that most of them are still holding up great while new areas are shifting a bit more. I'm not sure why.

I used to test roads. We'd take a "nuke" out and place it over the packed down soil to ensure density was correct. Sometimes the test passed, and sometimes it failed, but when it failed, it was often because the soil consistency was different from the sample taken for calibrating the machine. Therefore, it's always a judgment call as to whether or not the road is good or not.

It is inexperienced summer students like I was that make this judgement call. The guys on the job sites would tell me that in the old days they would pack it down for a set amount of time, and then stop when they felt the consistency change. Then they knew the compaction was perfect. These days, they use the 3rd party to test the roads with "nukes" in order to keep the contractors honest. I don't think it is as accurate as the old method, but it covers everyone's butt, and that's all that matters these days.

[metallica]

Some of the best roads built where with pulvimix. same roads as Gilardi back in the 70's. If the road base is is not good what ever goes on top is crap. I paved all over the province for 20 years and some of the biggest problems were the gravelpits and what was in them and the type of oil used. The rock and aggregate have a positive and negitive charge and oil at times will not bind. We had a job north of Prince and the whole job failed because of the pit and the oil.

[Rwede]

We were visiting friends in LC yesterday and went down Bottom Wood Lake. What's with all the stupid white posts? How long until a joy-riding group of drunks drives over the whole lot of them?

And what's with blocking off the right turn at Woodsdale with them? Traffic was backed up waiting for a guy turning left, and it was a complete cluster-you-know-what.

Another GEM in the crown of DLC bureaucrats and politicians.

[metallica]

And what's with blocking off the right turn at Woodsdale with them? Traffic was backed up waiting for a guy turning left, and it was a complete cluster-you-know-what.

Got to admit you are no right, sorry pun intended.Talked to the gas people and they have no idea why this was put in. A whole right turn lane closed. Go figure, LCD!!!

[Not Bob]

Haven't seen the road posts yet, but I am guessing it has something to do with the million or so spent on the bus exchange.