- Cape Rolling Out Bloomfield Road Art Trail (8/21/19)1
- Donors Pledge Almost Two Grand To Replace SEMO's Possibly Sentient ‘Gum Tree' (8/16/18)
- SEMO and The Will To (Become A Consultant) – Part 2 (6/14/18)
- SEMO and The Will To Do (You Really Want To See That Legal Notice?) – Part 1 (6/4/18)
- Judge, Jury... Trashman (6/1/18)
- Diary of Cape Girardeau Road Deconstruction (5/11/18)
- Trying To Save A Tree From City “Improvements” (4/30/18)2
Is MODOT Yanking Our Cable?
The phrase "yanking your chain" is sometimes used to describe a situation where one person is trying to convince another person that something is so because they say it is.
I think MODOT is yanking our chain. Or, in this case, our cable.
The Southeast Missourian published an article last week discussing the benefits of the cross-over cable systems which MODOT has installed on parts of Interstates throughout Missouri including the recent addition of a 44 mile stretch on I-55 between Oak Ridge and Sikeston.
These systems save lives. The facts are undisputable.
But what I do dispute -- and I have blogged about before -- is why MODOT has chosen to locate the cable system on our part of I-55 so close to the south-bound lane, that you could not pull off the interstate on that side for a routine emergency stop without damaging your vehicle.
Here is the reasoning reported in the article:
When the safety program first started in 2004, guard cable was put in the low-lying center of the median. But flooding undermined the poles holding the cable - and repairs required outside contractors, (the MODOT Project Engineer said).
I find this reasoning ludicrous and here's why.
First of all, if installing the guard cable in the low-lying center of the median affects the integrity of the system, then where are the statistics? According to the article, the Highway Patrol reported that in parts of the state where the systems were installed the number of cross-over fatalities dropped from 55 in the year preceding installation to just 2 in the YEARS since.
That statistical drop is worthy of repeating -- 55 to 2.
A lot of these cable system -- if not all of them -- were installed in the center of the medians of those particular highways. If flooding is affecting their performance, the statistics being reported don't show it.
Secondly, using the excuse of flooding doesn't hold any water. If flooding were truly a problem for these systems, wouldn't it also be undermining the actual roadways? Unless the water table is extremely close to the surface, the solution to this reputed problem is to either put the cable supports in deeper, use longer supports, fix the drainage problems or all of the above.
While the water table may be an issue on I-55 south of Benton where the state flattens out into lowlands, I'm pretty confident it is not a problem in Cape Girardeau County or northern Scott County. If that were really the case, anytime you planted a tree in your backyard, you would have a Beverly Hillbillies moment, but instead of "crude" it would be water.
Thirdly, I really don't follow the logic that if the poles are undermined and located in the middle of the median that those repairs must be done by outside contractors, but in the next paragraph it says that the "newer guard cables are installed closer to the freeway shoulder to allow for quicker, easier maintenance by state crews."
So MODOT can do the maintenance, IF the systems are snuggled up next to the inside south-bound lane of I-55, but IF they're installed 20 feet away in the middle of the median, outside contractors must handle the work.
Huh?
The biggest unanswered question I have regarding this whole cable-system installation is why it was just installed on the south-bound side of I-55. Do cross-over accidents not happen with north-bound drivers?
Or is MODOT planning on spending another $4.5 million for the north-bound lanes of our part of I-55 so that we will have a matched set?
If they do, that will be a massive waste since the stats speak for themselves.
I know this rant is a completely moot point since MODOT has already spent the money and the system is installed. It would be foolish of them to even consider relocating the system at this time. It's a sunk cost. The money has been spent and you -- the reader -- may be asking yourself, so what? What's done, is done.
That's true. But whenever you let idiocy encroach it quickly becomes the rule, and rules are difficult to change. I think the location of the cable system along our part of I-55 was a poor decision and I would hate for it to be presented as a "good" example for future cable-system placements.
When I read the article in the Southeast Missourian and MODOT's reasoning for the cable-system placement, I felt something being yanked. And it wasn't a cable.
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