Why the salt didn't work, it causes more ice

You don't use salt, you use sand. Period.

 

Oregon uses gravel. The bigger the better.

 

On the other hand, both sand and gravel are terrible in margaritas.

 

Colorado uses boulders. Even bigger.

 

Seems like the lack of planning is what caused the ice...not the salt. But given that we have very little in the way of urban planning here (except for those of us that live in rural areas...we can't get rid of the damn urban planners) it comes as no surprise that the professionals did not think that the roads would freeze.

I sent my office home at 2pm after doing a highly technical "look at the temperature/look out the window" analysis...maybe I should apply for a job with the city?!

- TCab

 

"The snow got ahead of us" said McGinn. How? I live in Oly and knew it would tie up traffic once the snow hit on Monday evening with dropping temps. They knew it would be record cold.

What it means is that the cities and counties bought the deicer and loaded it, but hoped it would work at lower temps, since they didn't have enough sand as a backup plan.

The Puget Sound area won't be good with roads until the unelected bureaucrats who have continued to fail in these positions for years and years are replaced by employees who have some emergency management skills.

 

Yep it took me 2+ hours to make it about 5 miles home on Monday. It seems that the three major routes out of little ole Bremerton all have hills involved. I had no problem driving but couldn't get anywhere because all the roads were completely gridlocked.

It would not have mattered how much sand or de-icer the state had on hand, the trucks couldn't get anywhere either!!

Of course if drivers were more prepared it would make things easier as well. I can't tell you how many rear wheel drive trucks, vans, cars etc. I saw spinning away with no hope of making it up even the slightest grade. Guess which vehicles ended up being the ones blocking the roads??? Even a UPS truck with no chains or anything?? Don't they watch the news???

 

I would belive that a lot of the cities feel that they are saving money by not attempting to clear the snow (then turned to packed ice) until it quits snowing rather than staying on top if it from the get go. My 23 mile one way commute at 03:30 this morning was on roads that had a layer of deicer laid down before it snowed and the roads were good even though it was snowing. That is until I got to the city limits and had to drive on unplowed streets for the next five miles to get to work. It turned into a "Roy Cats be the first one to make tracks" thing which wasn't that bad but in about 45 minutes those same streets will be rutted packed snow and ice due to the traffic on them before it is cleared.