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#1

Bridges / Re: Brooklyn Bridge Hit By Shi...

Last post by pderocco - Today at 01:39:36 AM

I've lived in a windy area for half of my life, and sometimes wind just... stops. Hope this helps!

I lived in Oklahoma and then I moved to Las Vegas, which is somehow just as windy. Those that don't know wind aren't in my shoes of my neighborhood.

But still, if the wind just stopped, I guess it was the river current that caused them to hit the bridge? You'd think they would have a plan for that, since "sometimes the wind stops" and "rivers usually have a current" aren't exactly unforeseeable.

If a boat loses power, it quickly loses momentum because water drag is huge, and ends up carried by the current. And this isn't a heavy ship like a steel battleship; it's wood, so it doesn't have that much momentum. But unless my geography is all screwed up, this ship was sailing north from the harbor toward the bridge, into the current, which can be up to 4 knots. So it looks to me like it was still under power, which makes we wonder why it wasn't put into reverse if it lost steering.

#2

General Highway Talk / Re: XY Challenge

Last post by xonhulu - Today at 01:14:20 AM

May 19: Post the junction of a US Route ending in 1 and a US Route ending in 6.

I have plenty of options today, but I'll stick to my "neighborhood" out west.

US 101 and US 26 in Cannon Beach Jct:



US 91 and US 26 near Idaho Falls, ID:



US 191 and US 6 in Price, UT:



Bonus Time-Disjoint Concurrency: when US 491 replaced US 666, Utah briefly posted transition signage like this around Monticello, UT:

#3

Off-Topic / Re: Charter Communications to ...

Last post by Big John - Today at 01:13:34 AM

Management Services Organization

#4

Central States / Re: Missouri

Last post by sprjus4 - Today at 01:08:18 AM

For US 60 at US 65, the unfunded projects list (https://www.modot.org/sites/default/files/documents/High-Priority%20Unfunded%20Needs%202024%203.pdf, Page 29/62)  has an entry for "Phase 2" at this interchange.

I don't see an unfunded freeway upgrade in that document for US 60 between US 65 and the Rte J/Rte NN interchange, so either MoDOT is waiting until something forces the issue or there is something already in the works for that stretch.  There could also be a planned conversion of the intersections to RCUTS instead of a full freeway upgrade.

Upgrading US 60 east of Springfield is in consultation.  There is resistance to removal of at grade intersections.
https://sbj.net/stories/businesspeople-sound-alarm-on-modot-plans-along-highway-60,98441

From the sound of it, it doesn't seem like there's opposition to upgrading the roadway, but rather to the lack of access. They want another interchange built between US-65 and CR-NN / J so that traffic coming from Springfield doesn't have to drive over a mile past the businesses, exit, then come back down an access road back that same mile. Any new interchange would be located around 1.2 miles away from either US-65 or CR-NN / J so it's not totally impossible. That is a reasonable distance in between. They would just need funding, which is the issue.

#5

Traffic Control / Re: What Do You Call It -- Tho...

Last post by tchafe1978 - Today at 12:10:43 AM

The colloquial term for them in Wisconsin is "stop and go lights"

#6

General Highway Talk / Re: License Plate News

Last post by Scott5114 - Today at 12:10:16 AM

Right. For instance, why can't a previous number be "reintroduced" if the car that previous had that plate isn't registered for five years?

That would probably be easy to do with screened plates (which I despise), because those are basically printed on by computers that can print anything. But I'm pretty sure that embossed plates are manufactured in batches of consecutive numbers, and the machines aren't set up to be able to skip numbers that are still in use.

When NY introduced the current plate design, they offered people the ability to upgrade to the new plates (for more money, of course), including the ability to keep their current plate number when they do (for more money, of course).  I have seen new-style plates with plates numbers from before the K series, and they're embossed, so evidently they can emboss an older plate number on the new plates.

They can, but it's not particularly convenient, thus the fee for retaining the old number.

I have never seen a plate-embossing machine, but the way these sorts of things tend to work is that there's a stepper mechanism to advance the wheels by one each time it stamps out a plate. Think of it as being like an old odometer, from before they went digital. So if you are running off a set of specific out-of-sequence plates you have to manually set the machine to the first one, stamp it, manually advance it to the second one, etc.

Whereas with a digital printing machine you can theoretically just drop a list of numbers to print to the machine and it can print them all in the same amount of time, regardless of whether they're in sequence or not.

My question is who is so attached to their license plate number that they would pay extra to keep it during a reissue.

#7

Off-Topic / Re: U.S. Census Bureau populat...

Last post by Scott5114 - Today at 12:01:46 AM

How dare we keep the same functional zoning that had been in place for decades...(wut?)

I assume that's referring to when starter homes get replaced with McMansions.

I suppose that could happen if you stretch "urban setting" to be the reaches of sprawling cities like Houston.  Manhattan, not so much.

Houston doesn't have zoning. 

#8

Off-Topic / Re: Charter Communications to ...

Last post by Scott5114 - May 18, 2025, 11:54:13 PM

As a contracting company, it's not about total number of jobs.  It's about whether the MSO wants to keep doing business with us at all.  Right now, we're in one Charter market and one Cox market.  If the new merged MSO decides to re-analyze how they work with vendors, then who knows what might happen.  Again, though, this is just me shooting in the dark:  I haven't spoken to anyone at work yet, because I didn't find out till this week-end.

I would think that you'd be in a pretty good situation, then, since you have an established relationship with both companies and therefore probably have a better view of the big picture than either of the companies that are actually merging.

But I understand the anxiety, because you can never underestimate management's capacity to do stupid, short-sighted things.

(Also, I'm sure you've said what MSO stands for at some point, but I couldn't remember so I looked it up and Google tells me it's the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. I had no idea they even did cable.)

#9

Bridges / Re: Brooklyn Bridge Hit By Shi...

Last post by Scott5114 - May 18, 2025, 11:49:32 PM

Why does Mexico have a Navy?

Why would they not? I would assume every country that borders the ocean has a navy.

#10

Pacific Southwest / Re: CA-99 Interstate corridor?...

Last post by Rothman - May 18, 2025, 11:27:56 PM

But that often is the argument when it comes to CA 99.  Almost everyone who brings it up doesn't even understand the basics of the following:

-  What Interstate design standards are.
-  How State Highways in California are legislatively defined.
-  How the application process for non-chargeable Interstate designations work.

Usually the gist of these threads are something absent minded like "CA 99 should be I-9." 

To be honest, the whole "chargeable"/"non-chargeable" thing in California seems overly complicated to me given how federal funding has been handled since MAP-21.  You either have Interstate mileage recognized by FHWA  for 90% reimbursement or you don't (and, in my neck of the woods, NYC has shielded Interstates that are ineligible due to the timing and means of their designation many, many moons ago).

Short of it, if California wanted to go through the bother of getting CA 99 designated I-whatever and putting all sorts of money towards it (NY 17/I-86 on steroids), I wouldn't see a problem with it, especially to chase the 90% reimbursement for future maintenance.

But, yeah, just saying it should be I-whatever because it's a line on a map is silly.