Road conditions

[Dave]

Looking at the highway cameras this morning got me thinking. Most people on here looking a highway cameras are looking at traffic. Here the elevation changes a lot in a fairly short distance. So this time of the year you can go from clear bare roads to ice a snow in a short time. So I am looking to see if there is snow on the highway. I-84 in Pendleton is less than 1,400 feet of elevation. The top of Cabbage hill just east of there is almost 3,600 feet. The actual grade going up Cabbage is 7 miles long. From here to go to town is 25 miles. Not a steep grade but the first 15 miles goes from around 2,500 to just under 4,000.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

We don't have elevation but we have distance from the lake shore. Wife looks at the highway cameras to see how far inland before she will hit snow. Early season the lake is warm so here close to the lake we may get rain and just a few miles inland they will get a foot snow. Don't ever have to worry about traffic.

 

[Silver]

Traffic not a worry here unless a neighbour is moving 1000 cows down the road. But if I can see trucks running tire chains on the highway cams I stay home.

 

[Dave]

I get maybe 20 cars a day by my place so traffic on my road isn't an issue unless one of the neighbors is moving cows. Not a lot of car traffic on the highway but the state police have told me there is between 15,000 and 20,000 trucks a day. Very few headed here. They are supplying Portland and Seattle.

 

[4hfarms]

We try to stay home when it's messy like that. One of the benifits of retirement...

 

[Dave]

We try to stay home when it's messy like that. One of the benifits of retirement...

I am retired too. But I am buying cows right now on Wednesday and Thursday. So I kind of got to go. I check because we can have a rainy night here but a few miles up the road there can be a lot of white. Today I went to the sale. There was about 15 bred cows which would work for me. They also had 2,500+ feeder calves which will sell first. I didn't want to sit there until 10:00 to buy cows. B's son was there. He plans on staying so I left him with a order and came home.

 

[kenny thomas]

Im retired but push snow for the highway department. But still dont want it to get bad.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

If I stayed home everytime the roads were bad sometimes I couldn't leave for 2 months straight. 200+ inches of snow a season means lots and lots of snow covered roads.

 

[kenny thomas]

If I stayed home everytime the roads were bad sometimes I couldn't leave for 2 months straight. 200+ inches of snow a season means lots and lots of snow covered roads.

I could make a good living there pushing snow. We probably dont get 6" total all winter.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

The county road commission drivers make ok money, just a bit more than the gas station pays. Haha

 

[kenny thomas]

The county road commission drivers make ok money, just a bit more than the gas station pays. Haha

It pays way more than I'm worth here, but might only work 10-15 nights a year.

 

[kenny thomas]

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Our plow drivers are county employees. They typically don't get OT as there are plenty of staff to run multiple shifts. They offer decent benefits but the pay rate isn't great for having to be outside in the worst weather.

 

[kenny thomas]

Most of ours are state employees but they hire a few seasonal people like me only for snow. In Virginia all roads are state, no county. We work 12 hour shifts. After 8 hours is overtime. After 40 hours a week it is all overtime.

 

[Silver]

Our roads are maintained by private companies under contract to the province. I'm surprised that in the US you'd have government handling such things, seems you would have went the free enterprise route long ago.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I can see if you don't do much plowing it's better to pay OT and have less employees. Here there is 3 shifts for the highways 7 days a week all winter long. If there isn't snow to plow they shelf the shoulders back, haul snow out of towns, haul sand/salt, etc.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Our county even plows driveways for people after day shift is caught up on roads.

 

[Dave]

I have been here 6 full winters. I can count the times the county has plowed the road in front of my house on my fingers. Probably the fingers on one hand. The state does a good job on the freeway. The county has forgotten we even exist. The closer you get to Baker City the more the county road dept works.

 

[kenny thomas]

Our roads are maintained by private companies under contract to the province. I'm surprised that in the US you'd have government handling such things, seems you would have went the free enterprise route long ago.

They do contract much of the paving, bridge work, and mowing. Almost anything except the daily stuff. Other than the major interstates the local crews do snow removal. They do contract a few trucks and some farm tractors with blades.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Our county does all the mowing, guardrail fixing, road lifting, gravel hauling, road grading, etc in the summer. The only thing they don't do is paving, but they do all the prep work.