Road Warrior

MDOT gets green light to finish unbuilt ramp at Ambassador Bridge

The Michigan Department of Transportation has made a bit of headway in its ongoing legal wrangling with the Detroit International Bridge Company, owner of the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

MDOT announced Wednesday that the Federal Highway Administration has given it the go-ahead to build an elevated ramp that will allow trucks coming into Detroit from Canada to bypass neighborhood streets to reach freeways at the bridge's base. The ramp had been delayed because of DIBC's failure to convey land needed to build it to the state; the land transfer occurred in December.

MDOT says it now will award an expedited contract to build the ramp, with work expected to start in February and slated for completion by the Memorial Day weekend.

Litigation concerning other portions of the unfinished Gateway project continues, MDOT said.

"I want to thank the Federal Highway Administration’s Michigan Division for the flexibility to allow MDOT to move forward while we continue to work through the courts to ensure the bridge company meets all of the terms it agreed to in the contract," said State Transportation Director Kirk T. Steudle. "We look forward to the bridge company completing its part of the Gateway project as promised to improve the flow of passenger vehicle and commercial traffic at the border and improve the quality of life for the residents of southwest Detroit."

Bus trade organization unimpressed with latest Priceline ad

Have you seen the latest Priceline TV commercial in which the "Priceline Negotiator" character played by William Shatner apparently dies? Shatner is ending his pitchman relationship with Priceline, and they decided this character should go out with a bang. Well, the American Bus Association is predictably unimpressed:

AMERICAN BUS ASSOCIATION: PRICELINE NEGOTIATOR BUS ACCIDENT
COMMERCIAL IS IN POOR TASTE
After viewing the newest and last commercial in the "Priceline Negotiator" series with actor William
Shatner, the American Bus Association believes the spot, depicting Mr. Shatner's character apparently
dying in a fiery bus crash, as the bus tumbles over a bridge and into a river is in very poor taste.
ABA believes the commercial damages the reputation of our industry and the hardworking men and
women who drive buses, maintain them and do all of the work to safely carry hundreds of thousands each day. ABA is asking Priceline to take the spot out of circulation immediately.

To show Mr. Shatner just how safe the motorcoach industry is, ABA is inviting Mr. Shatner to ride on a
motorcoach. Beginning in February, Mr. Shatner will be starring on Broadway and many hundreds of
motorcoaches each day arrive and depart in Manhattan bringing commuters, travelers, theater goers, and others visitors to New York City.  In fact, it is estimated that nearly 1/3 of theater tickets are purchased by group tour and motorcoach customers. Mr. Shatner would be our honored guest to experience how enjoyable travel by motorcoach can be.

According to U.S. government reports, motorcoaches are the safest form of surface transportation. Each year the motorcoach industry safely carries more than 726 million people to big cities and small towns, to visit family members, to get to an airport or on a vacation. Our industry is very proud of our safety record and our ABA members and their employees work hard every day to make sure our passengers are safe.
"William Shatner is a cultural Icon. He's been a part of the entertainment world for 60 plus years, from his early days in film and television as a character actor in the late 1950's and early 60's, to his many starring roles on television, movies, commercials and the stage. Mr. Shatner is one of the most recognized actors and best actors of our era.  Anytime he is available for a motorcoach ride, we'll be there to show him personally how great our industry is," said Peter J. Pantuso, President and CEO, American Bus Association.

My take: The bus association will be lucky to get any more of a response than the Association of American Railroads gets when it protests advertising or movie scenes showing people standing or walking on railroad tracks. It may get a bit of free publicity out its complaint, but probably also boost YouTube views of the ad.

 

Going the wrong way on Huron Street

I haven't seen any wrong-way drivers on Huron street since I wrote about the problem late last month, but then again, I haven't driven Huron at night much since then. The multiple occasions when I observed wrong-way traffic on the one-way section south of The Blade have tended to be well after dark, possibly involving drivers who don't visit downtown much but were in Toledo for nightlife or to attend an event at the Huntington Center or Fifth Third Field.

This is what the intersection of Huron and Adams looked like to a northbound motorist on Huron on Dec. 14, the night that a wrong-way car and a TARTA bus collided at Huron and Jackson. You can see the bus and the police-car lights at the distant intersection. Two of the three Do Not Enter signs on the traffic-signal posts are also fairly obvious, but what most dramatically stands out is the green from the traffic lights -- the glare from which is obscuring the third Do Not Enter sign, mounted in between them.

I'm generally not a believer in spending a lot of public money for extra signs and lights to coddle motorists who, if they would just put their cell phones down and stop trying to fix their hair or read magazines while driving, could get by just fine with their eyes and ears devoted to watching the road ahead. But the transition on Huron Street from two-way to one-way traffic is a very unusual situation, and that makes me more sympathetic to drivers who run afoul of it. And run afoul of this one they do. When I mentioned to co-workers that I was working on this story, several told me they, too, have seen wrong-way drivers on the one-way section. A few said they avoid Huron Street entirely because of that.

The article also inspired an e-mail exchange with Larry Robinson, a computer instructor at a technical college in Indiana whose research includes traffic-signal systems and who also apparently has a deep personal interest in traffic engineering. He reinforced what city officials told me for the article: that green arrows left and right in place of the full green signals shown in the picture would not be permissible under the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. The reason is that an arrow of any kind signifies a "protected movement" with no other traffic having a conflicting right-of-way, and that includes pedestrian traffic. With a full green, motorists making a turn are required to yield to opposing traffic or pedestrians in crosswalks, but a motorist whose movement is governed by an arrow is presumed to have exclusive right-of-way. In practice, I'm not sure that makes much of a difference in Toledo, which seems plagued with earbud-wearing walkers who pay little attention to the traffic lights and walk signals when they step out into traffic, but the legal ramifications are clear.

What, then, to do? The city says those Do Not Enter signs on the signal masts are highly reflective -- something my puny cell-phone camera's picture doesn't represent, but which was proven as I drove away and stepped on my brakes to see how well that showed up on the signs -- and thus should be sufficient warning for drivers. But I'm not convinced they're adequate, especially considering the arena is little more than a block away and a significant amount of downtown Toledo nightlife is not too much farther down Huron. Put an unfamiliar driver on that street, at night, possibly on a cell-phone asking somebody for directions home, and you've got a recipe for trouble.

My modest proposal: replace one of those Do Not Enter signs with an LED model that is either continuously lit, lit only at night, or lit only when the light is green or yellow. Mr. Robinson says the latter two options would violate the traffic-control manual, because having such a sign lit only part-time would suggest a straight movement is legal at other times. My take is that there would still be Do Not Enter signs present at all times, and by lighting up only when the stoplight is green or yellow -- my preferred option -- such a sign's attention-getting value would be maximized. But if Mr. Robinson is right, I'd certainly be satisfied with a continuously lit Do Not Enter sign or, as a cheaper alternative, adding blinking red LEDs to the borders of one or more of the existing Do Not Enter signs in a fashion similar to many rural Stop signs in the Toledo area. Either would give inattentive or confused drivers an extra warning about an unusual, and dangerous, traffic pattern that apparently is going to be around for a few years until the city is ready to convert the rest of Huron Street to two-way traffic.

Don't plan on taking I-75 to Ohio 15 from Findlay Thursday morning

The I-75 southbound exit ramp to State Rt. 15 and U.S. 68 south of Findlay will be closed for about 3-1/2 hours Thursday morning for pavement grinding, the Ohio Department of Transportation announced.
The rough-pavement repair is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. and be done by 11:30 a.m.
No detour route will be posted. Those travelling from the Toledo area to Columbus or other central Ohio points should consider using U.S. 23 via Fostoria as an alternative route. Taking State Rt. 235 to U.S. 30 to U.S. 23 in Upper Sandusky is another option.

Special holiday train running tonight

Every December, Canadian Pacific runs two special holiday trains that make stops along CP's lines in Canada and the United States where musicians perform to raise money for local food banks.

While CP doesn't own any tracks in southeast Michigan or northwest Ohio, one of the trains will make a quick dash through parts of Monroe, Lenawee, Fulton, and Williams counties Thursday night following a performance scheduled to start at 5:15 p.m. in Windsor, Ontario. CP uses a Norfolk Southern line through Milan, Adrian, and North Morenci, Mich., and Alvordton, Montpelier, and Blakeslee, Ohio to run trains between Detroit and Chicago.

I can't offer a precise time for when the special train will run through these communities, but figure on it being no sooner than 8 p.m. or so for Milan. After the Windsor stop, it has to get a new train crew, cross the border, clear Customs, and then work its way through a freight yard on the southwest side of Detroit before it hits the main line. But it's a sight worth seeing, with the train lit up with Christmas lights -- and unlike the aurora borealis we might have seen the other night if it hadn't been raining, this light show will happen no matter the weather.

Here's a photograph of it in upstate New York last weekend, with lighting added by the photographer.

Some particularly pointless aggressive driving

A thought for the unknown driver of a pale gold Dodge Stratus inbound on the Anthony Wayne Trail at about 9:50 this morning: You darted around other cars. You tailgated. You blasted off from every traffic light like a scalded rabbit. And you got downtown at the same time I did. Why is that? Because you caught every darned red light and wasted a whole bunch of momentum energy braking to a halt at each one. And I see people like you every day out on the streets of Toledo. What keeps you all from learning that the only things you accomplish by driving the way you do is wasting fuel, creating a safety hazard, and annoying everyone else?

Memo to urban planners

My daily route to work takes me near Toledo Municipal Court, where there are a lot of people who get dropped off by others to either attend, or participate in, cases. And quite often the drivers of these cars stop in the middle of traffic, wherever it's convenient for them, regardless of the hazard they create. For example, this morning I saw a motorist stop in the CENTER lane of three, and a passenger then emerged from the passenger side door. There was a construction vehicle occupying the left lane, so that means that this inconsiderate little show was stopping all other traffic on a relatively busy street.

The city could probably make quite a bundle in tickets by stationing an officer in front of the courthouse each morning from 9 to 10 a.m. writing citations for impeding traffic. Of course, that would only worsen the traffic problem with the people who stop in places they shouldn't, so such a sting would probably require those being ticketed to be directed off into a safer spot while they get written up. But it would be very efficient, too: they could be given court dates for five minutes later, and not have to make another trip downtown.

Yes, this is all fantasy. So at the very least, I implore urban planners in the future to never, ever place a courthouse -- especially a local one with traffic court -- on the left side of a one-way street. Think about this for a second, in light of what I have already described, and it's slam-dunk obvious.

 

Old trolley rails in The Blade's parking lot

Some years ago, when a city of Toledo contractor rebuilt part of Cherry Street, abandoned trolley tracks were discovered in the old pavement during the demolition phase. Now a similar situation has arisen in The Blade's parking lot, and along with unearthing a bit of history, we're also experiencing first-hand how construction projects can take longer than expected.

A contractor rebuilding the parking lot here has unearthed not only some rail, but also foundations from several buildings that surely were once part of Toledo's downtown terminal complex for electric interurban trains a century ago.

I learned of this because newspaper staff were just notified that, because of the rails and other unforseen construction issues, the parking lot work will take at least a week longer than previously expected. Having covered street construction -- and reconstruction -- projects in these parts for more than 18 years now, this extension had a very familiar ring to it. So, ye who tire of the orange barrels, take comfort that construction delays even affect the parking lot at The Blade. Except that we only have cones -- no barrels here.

TARTA, which took over Community Traction in 1971, took some of the old trolley rail from Cherry Street and carved it up into slices to put on plaques. Perhaps The Blade will find a use for the rail found in our lot. Upon being told of the find, James Gee, TARTA's general manager, said, "Just please don't send me a bill for the overtime."

 

The city fixes the Orange-Superior sewer leak (we think)

The Sewer and Drainage Division Confined Space Entry team has been at the corner of Superior and Orange streets quite a bit this week to repair the leaky pipe seam it identified last week. They've been here at least three times, actually, because after each successive repair, a new part of the seam has split open. But that has given me an opportunity to see how the internal fiberglass-epoxy patching method works, since I wasn't around to observe when they did the first repair on Monday.

In the first picture, we see the crew applying two-part epoxy to the sheet of fiberglass and making sure it's nice and smooth. The sheet will be folded over several times to make a thick patch over the failing seam inside the pipe.

Once that's done, the team wraps the sheet around a cylinder the size of a carpet roll that is actually an inflatable bladder with a pipe inside it. The internal pipe allows whatever water is flowing through the sewer pipe to pass through rather than back up behind the whole thing.

When it's all ready to go, a team member drops down into the manhole using a windlass and then the "carpet roll" is lowered down behind him with an air hose attached to it. When everything is in place inside the defective sewer, the air is turned on and the bladder inflates, pressing the epoxied fiberglass sheet against the inside of the pipe.

It takes a couple of hours for the epoxy to cure, during which it gets quite hot. Once it has set, the bladder is deflated and brought back up out of the manhole.

After each repair, the crew pumped dyed water into a nearby sinkhole on Orange that had developed once enough earth had been washed into the sewer by water seeping through the street's pavement and through the faulty seam. This afternoon, it appeared that the third patch was the charm, as fresh asphalt was put into the sinkhole before the crew left. The street repair is only temporary, as the city has a bigger rehab project in the works for Orange Street in the area.

Lane, ramp closings on I-75 tonight

Northbound I-75 will be reduced to a single lane overnight north of South Avenue for bridge deck repairs. The work is scheduled to start at midnight and end by 6 a.m. The downtown Toledo ramp (Exit 201B) will be closed during these hours.

Rain forecast for tonight, however, has prompted ODOT to postpone sign work on the I-75 northbound ramp to westbound I-475.