Column: A hot-wired highway and a warm sidewalk in Albert Lea

Staff

Published Friday, December 30, 2005

Ed Shannon, Tribune feature writer

For folks out here between the cornrows who think contending with winter driving is bad, then I suggest they consider themselves lucky in comparison with the folks who have to travel on all too many wild roadways out west.

Out in Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Washington

and Oregon

among the more mountainous of the nation's states, winter driving can be a real challenge.

Among those challenges are switchbacks, steep grades, narrow roadways with cliffs on one side and drop-offs on the other side, rock slides and avalanches, and all too much snow and ice.

The state, county and local highway departments have through the years worked hard to keep those roadways cleared off and passable during the winter months. In some places, like California's notorious Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada Range on I-80 west of Reno, Nev., tire chains are required on all vehicles traveling on this part of the freeway during the worst of the winter driving conditions.

Two other notorious freeway places are in northeast Oregon on I-84. One is named Cabbage Hill and is south of Pendleton on the Umatilla Indian Reservation. This particular 10-mile portion of the freeway has a difference of 2,600 feet in altitude and is a dreaded travel challenge anytime of the year.

About 50 miles south of Cabbage Hill is another hazardous portion of this freeway. This place is south of La Grande, Ore., and is known as the Ladd Canyon roadway. A nine mile portion of this freeway from the Ladd Creek Bridge south to the crest of the canyon is considered to be one of the worst in Oregon for accidents, especially in the winter.

According to an article in the Nov. 9, 2005, issue of the Baker City (Ore.) Herald, the Ladd Canyon portion of I-84 had an average of 31 accidents a year during the winter months from 1998 to 2002. This was the highest rate in Oregon, and that evidently includes Cabbage Hill.

Earlier this year the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) set up an experimental pavement warming system on a 1.2-mile part of this roadway which has a six percent grade. A six percent grade means there's a gain or loss of six feet per 100 feet of highway, and that's about as far as engineers care to go in roadway layouts.

ODOT spent $1.1 million to cut nine or ten grooves in the pavement on the outside lane of the south bound uphill portion. In the grooves copper wires were placed, then covered with rubber-like material. Now, hopefully, electrical power can be used to melt off the snow and ice and help the liquid magnesium-chloride solution work even better to keep this part of the freeway safer during the winter months.

One place where special efforts are being made to eliminate dangerous winter driving conditions is with bridge decks. On some bridges electrical wires under the pavement surface are being used to help melt off

the ice. At least one bridge in the Twin Cities area reportedly has a pipeline system and sprinklers to spray a chloride mixture on the pavement to melt off the ice and snow.

In fact, there's even a place here in Albert Lea where a warm sidewalk can be found. It's located on the upper sidewalk under the arches facing South Broadway Avenue of

the new Freeborn County Government Center, plus the handicap access sidewalk at the northwest part of this building. This system is based on PVC pipe which is laid under the new cement sidewalk. An antifreeze solution is heated and circulated through those pipes during the snowy and icy days of the year to keep those sidewalks safer for use by people.

Here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

And with this New Year's greeting comes a special reminder. Sunday will be the start of a special year for the people of Albert Lea. It's when this city starts to observe its sesquicentennial, or 150th year as a part of our nation.

(Feature writer Ed Shannon's column appears each Friday.)

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