I-90 Closed Again

I-90 Closed by Avalanche; Britney Rushed to Hospital:
An avalanche buried parts of I-90 in Western Washington and as far east as New York apparently. “We’ve had a lot of snow and all we can say is we hope Britney’s OK.” Said a spokesperson from the DOT.

I-90 and US 2 are either closed or really backed up in the Cascade Mountains. The third alternative, US 12, is not an easy drive in winter. Newcastle people who need to get over the mountains are pretty much going to have to wait until spring. Christine and the state Secretary of Transportation flew to North (Twin Peaks) Bend to view the backup. The governor issued this statement: “This is one of the worst backups we’ve ever seen and I just hope Britney is OK.”

Rudi and Edwards dropped out of the Presidential Race in order to spend more time at the hospital with Britney. “It’s a tragic situation when people can’t use a major interstate highway to visit a sick friend,” said a saddened Rudi.

OK, you try watching the morning news and see if you can keep from being confused. I looked out the window and there’s no snow at my house.

I-90 has been closed a lot this week due to natural avalanche events as well as what they call “avalanche control.” They shoot howitzers at snow banks hoping to trigger lots of small slides in order to prevent big ones. Since some of these small slides occasionally cover the highway it’s a good idea to close it while the shooting is going on. Also the people who shoot the guns are state employees so it’s anybody’s guess how good their aim is.

Yesterday after almost a day and a half with I-90 closed it was reopened. The avalanche controllers and snow removal gangs were taking a break and kerbang a huge natural avalanche buried the whole road near Granite Mountain. It’s down hill from where the action usually takes place and must have been waiting for everyone to relax.

Fortunately nobody was lost but the quantity of snow is enormous and they’ve been digging out all night. We had three feet of new snow since Monday up there and expect another three feet before Friday. That’s tomorrow. I’m always amazed at the astounding difference in weather between here and just 40 miles east of here.

I’m staying on this side of the hill for a week or so. I don’t want to be too far from a TV because I need an update on Britney every 10 minutes.

Al

Bike path for airport trade

Memorandum of Understanding Establishing a Framework for Intensified Cooperation:

A few years ago BNSF (Motto: we’ll find a logo we like - some day) announced the sale of their rail spur between Renton and Snohomish. They use it about once a day for bulk cargo. I’m too lazy to research what.

King County wanted the corridor for a bike trail but without actually paying money. The county established a framework of intensified cooperation with the Port of Seattle. The Port would buy the rail corridor and then trade it to King County for the King County Airport, better known as Boeing Field. No, that’s not where Boeing builds 737s. In fact Boeing doesn’t build airplanes at Boeing Field.

The county and the port had this kind of worked out and were only waiting for BNSF to finish its major improvements in Renton. Believe me, Renton needs it. Once these are complete BNSF will no longer need the part that runs north from Renton to Snohomish.

Have you looked at a map yet? It helps.

Then a wild group jumped up and said it would be stupid to use that 42 miles just for a bike path and why don’t we also run commuter trains on it? They used it for the Dinner Train and people liked that. Right? They say there will still be enough room for a bike path beside the track. Maybe cost $250 million or so. Not bad compared to building a proper 42 mile commuter rail line from scratch.
And then it gets complicated.

(Get the map now) The Port of Seattle currently owns the big Seattle airport called Sea-Tac. It was named that when we thought Tacoma was going to be important. They also own the ship docks in Seattle, hence the name “Port of Seattle.”

Well the Port of Seattle is building a third runway at Sea-Tac. In order to raise the ground to the level of the existing runways they needed about half a million truck loads of dirt. We know where to get that – Maple Valley. That’s one of the reasons the Maple Valley Highway is so dump truck intensive.

However, the previous Port comish got a little too cozy with the contractor and it appears they spent about $97 million more than they should have for dirt. Dirt rolling on the Maple Valley Highway is more valuable than I thought. I should have grabbed a handful.

Now I’m wondering if the whole framework of intensified cooperation is still on. The dirt hauling audit is resulting in criminal charges and that might result in somebody questioning how the Port could just trade away the dang airport. Just asking that question could delay the process for years.

But back to the commuter rail cum bike path. These heavy thinkers are pretty sure we could replace the existing rails with high speed rails and run fast commuter trains between Bellevue and Snohomish. The road that we drive up there on now is called highway 9. It’s a bear. You need a real reason to go. If there was a fast commuter train people would probably ride that instead. Or ride a bike. Either way is better than highway 9.

Here’s a potential problem. We’d never be able to get approval to run fast trains on the route. Traffic in Totem Lake is so bad at the grade crossings that the Dinner Train had to stop at a red light. If you ran a commuter train every 15 minutes Totem Lake would gridlock so bad they’d have to close CompUSA and Larry’s Market. Oh, wait, they already did that…. See?

Anyway, the existing rail line twists and turns, crosses I-90 and I-405 (3 times), and has about 100 grade crossings plus a huge 100 year old wooden trestle. That’s really why BNSF wants to stop running trains. It’d cost an untold fortune to put in the federally mandated safety improvements to prevent trains bumping into commuters. Some of those grade crossings are major 6 lane streets. And let’s not even discuss Bellevue.

OK, that’s just whining. The real reason I don’t like that commuter rail plan is the current route doesn’t go near Lake Boren. What’s the point of spending money on commuters if they can’t visit Newcastle? But I do like the entertainment. These heavy thinkers will have trouble thinking their way out of the grade crossing issue. Not to mention getting $250 million in funding that doesn’t include cost of the actual trains. Oh, I just mentioned it. But I like to watch as long as they don’t raise my taxes.

Al

Doomed Alaska Way Viaduct

Doomed Alaska Way Viaduct:
My esteemed governess, Christine, has made it clear that she’s going to knock down the viaduct by 2012 whether there’s a plan to replace it or not. I thought you might like to see some of the reasons we think it’s too shaky.

The thing that looks like ivy growing up the support is actually the Nisqually Earthquake. I didn’t know it but apparently earthquakes can grow like vines. If we cut that off the support it might fall.

The old Fremont Troll (sometimes called the Montlake Troll) has moved to the viaduct in hopes of scaring away the next earthquake. Hope it works.

The main viaduct is dark gray in front of the buildings. Notice on the lower left is a parking lot sign that says you have to pay to park under the structure. No liability if it falls on your car.

The South Lake Union Streetcar (SLUT) blue car is shown here even though it doesn’t go to Alaska Way. It’s just a fun thing.

Al

Washington State Primary

Presidential Primary - NOT:
We here in Washington, the state, will receive primary ballots in the mail in the next couple weeks. We’ll be asked to choose a party (of the five) and cast a vote for our favorite candidate from that party only. Fred will be on it but he’s already dropped out. It’s not due until February 19 so we can wait until after Super Tuesday and see who else has left. Might make it easy.

Included in the mailing will be paper we have to sign promising that we won’t participate in a caucus of the other party. If we vote on a Republican ballot we have to promise we won’t go to a Democrat caucus. Umm, wait. If we have a primary why are we talking about a caucus? Because nobody’s in charge! Christine is driving her big bulldozer up the shoulder of I-5 toward the Alaska Way Viaduct so she’s busy.

But it gets worse: on the Democrat side the primary won’t mean anything because all of their delegates will be chosen from caucus results. On the Republican side only half are caucus and other half are Primary results. So there’s a potential that half of the Washington State delegation at the Republican Convention will proudly cast a vote for Fred Thompson. Standing O to follow.

We’re tossing a whole election for virtually no reason. And since the caucuses will be over before Feb. 19 our votes will just be so much noise. Sort a referendum on the election process itself. Anybody know what a caucus is or where to find one? Now I’m curious.

So I say we need write-ins. For example what if all the Democrats wrote in Britney Spears? Wouldn’t mean a thing. What about if nobody at all votes? They’d still file charges of voter fraud.

Oh, by the way; if you see Clay Bennett tell him it’s OK to go ahead and move the Sonics to Oklahoma City now. As long as he takes the 12 game losing streak and tattoos it across his forehead.

Al

Sasquatch Sighting

Devil's Slide

Visiting the Snow:
This was a weekend when I went to visit the snow. We rarely get snow here in the Greater Newcastle megalopolis because the Pacific Ocean keeps us wet and mild. Our mountains get most of the snow. It can even snow in the mountains when it’s sunny in Newcastle. Ha ha, just kidding, the sun never shines in Newcastle.

A lot of your Western Washington residents like to go play in the snow because afterward they can return home and marvel at how rhododendrons can bloom in January. In February the blossoms turn brown and fall to the ground.

One method of visiting the snow is via snowmobile. That’s a kind of motorcycle that has a rubber track and runners instead of wheels. Amazing devices. But you aren’t supposed to ride them any place except on snow. And since the snow covers the mountains we need to go there to ride. You load them on a trailer and drag the whole outfit to where the rig gets stuck in the snow and there you are.

Well, on this particular trip we managed to visit a place called Devil’s Slide on the snowmobiles. It’s aptly named because it would be a devil to climb up and you’d probably slide back down. We didn’t make it to the top of Devil’s Slide because the snow and loose rocks were just too slick. But, in the tradition of Americans in the woods we made a fine mess. Snowmobile parts strewn along the trail for miles. What fun.

People who’re really into it ware helmets and brightly colored spacesuits while riding machines with names like “Sno-eater” or “Avalanche Masher” and stuff. They go upwards of 100 mph and don’t seem to have any barriers. If the Forest Service needs a road cleared of drifts they just put up a sign that says “Snowmobiles KEEP OUT!” and in a couple of hours the drifts are gone.

We saw 26 bears, 13 moose, about 300 elk, and 2 sasquatch. At least I think they were sasquatch. They might have been imaginative snowmobile jumpsuits. Their machines were pretty fast.

In any case it was a very nice weekend and I had a lot of fun. On the way home we ate at the Red Horse Drive-In just outside Ellensburg. We had great food all weekend and great company. Hard to beat a good weekend. Even if we did see sasquatch.

Al