Traffic: November 2008 Archives

For all the moaning about salt supplies and the cost of sodium chloride for county roads, The Hound saw several municipal crews spreading a lot of the dear commodity on barely snow-covered streets on Monday. If it's so expensive and you don't have much, why blow it it on a mini-event?

At the most, the county got a dusting of about an inch, The Hound figures. They have to bring out the big trucks and salt spreaders for that? Perhaps we are becoming too used to down to the pavement roads in winter.

Two inches wouldn't get that much salt if The Hound was in charge of snowplows and spreaders. This is, after all, powdery white gold. Or at least that's what we were all told by public works pros from Antioch to Waukegan and from Winthrop Harbor to Mundelein when bids were being let.

So what's the deal? Why not just use sand at this early stage and hold the salt in reserve for those eight-to-12-inch storms you know will hit us once Old Man winter really starts to dump on us? Can someone enlighten The Hound?

The Hound is all a twitter over Gov. Rod Blagojevich's plan for "green" lanes on the tollway. That usually means we tollway hikers will pay the green.

The Illilnois Toll Highway Authority on Thursday approved creating high occupancy vehicle lanes, aka carpool lanes at a cost of $400 million. Yikes, that is a lot of green!

The "green lane" concept will convert the left lanes of the tollway's most-congested areas into carpool lanes. Does that mean the Lake County portion of the Tri-State seeing that we're under construction siege? Probably not, knowing the tollway.

Here's the plan: If you're driving with at least one other passenger, you can use these lanes and pay the regular I-Pass rate. If you're driving by yourself, you'd have to pay a higher rate. Um, but how will you catch carpool cheats in these green "free-flow" lanes? Who knows?

The Hound has seen similar commuter lanes in other cities, such as Nashville, where cops have caught some motorists in the "diamond" lanes with those plastic blow-up dolls riding shotgun. What the drivers do with those dolls after they get to their destinations are anybody's guess.

The tollway wants to have 80 miles of these green lanes ready by 2010, which may or may not be the target date when the Tri-State construction ends in Lake County. Speaking of green, wouldn't kicking off the program on St. Patrick's Day 2010 be grand?

Note to the governator: There is no pot of gold at the end of the 2010 rainbow for you.

The Hound is in a quandary as winter approaches and the snow and ice begins to fly: How will we salt the kibble with all the warnings about salt shortages? What should The Hound put on the popcorn while watching Animal Planet? More pepper?

While The Hound worries about food seasonings, Lake County motorists should worry about the condition of their roads this winter as community upon community says they're paying more for salt and will have less to spare. Lindenhurst this week adopted a new policy to conserve salt, which the village bought for $138 a ton, compared to $40 a ton last year. Libertyville is the latest to issue a de-icing warning.

Essentially, Libertyville will probably be doing what other towns will do when the snow falls. Arterial, collector and business park roads will be fully salted during an initial callout, according to the village's public works department. Low-volume residential streets will be salted at curves, hills and intersections during initial callouts. After snow events have ended, most streets will be salted again to combat ice buildup.

If you live on a cul-de-sac in Libertyville, they won't be salted during the initial callout unless on a sharp curve or hill. And, the village says they may be forced to use a sand/salt mixture if snow events pile up. That mixture's a throwback to the days of yore! Might as well put chains on the snow tires.

The Hound suggests drivers just trade in their Camrys on four-by-fours or AWDs, especially since gasoline prices have dropped. Dealers are willing to trade and deal. What's that, there's an economic meltdown? Well, hope for a meltdown come snow season, because the salt shortage may not clear the roads, Bunky.