Sleepless in Midland

Paying for highways: Toll roads or gas tax

The government should be smaller and do less. However, some things do need upkeep, and highways are a good example.

President Trump has suggested a gasoline tax of as much as $0.25 per gallon. Texas residents already pay a hefty gasoline tax, and an added two bits to every gallon will be felt. But if we have to have it, it needs to be fair. And it must have a sunset provision. If not it will be permanent, continue to grow, and the money will end up being spent of other things.

Proponents of toll roads, like Robert P. Murphy, in A Gas Tax Hike Is the Wrong Way to Fund Highways, make a strong libertarian case. And they might work if there's a way to pay the toll without having to stop at a toll booth.

Dwight Eisenhower got us off to a good start with the U.S. highway system, much of which is still in place, paid by taxpayer money. So if the infrastructure really needs a gigantic shot in the arm and legislators are unwilling to cut spending somewhere else, then maybe these two options are the only ones left.

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1:56 PM 2/26/2018

Local government debt exceeds $1.2B -- politicians giddy with glee

A majority of voters in Midland, Texas, voted in favor of a $100 million bond issue for road and water line repairs on 11/7/17. While a sales tax might have been a better approach for raising the money, proponents of the bond convinced voters to pile a huge load of debt onto the backs of property owners.

The photo on the right of the ecstatic council member was on the front page of the print edition of the Midland Reporter-Telegram. I titled it Bond Glee.

Meanwhile, In case anyone is interested in the local government debt, here's a table based on the reports at Bond Review Board Database Search Texas Local Governments FY 2016:

Entity	Principal	Interest	Total
City	$119,420,000	$52,553,031	$171,973,031
College	$36,965,000	$6,715,591	$43,680,591
County	$17,665,000	$4,132,534	$21,797,534
Hospital	$104,115,000	$63,086,894	$167,201,894
MISD	$224,020,000	$136,130,051	$360,150,051
Water District	$226,331,160	$246,486,027	$472,817,187
Totals	$728,516,160	$509,104,128	$1,237,620,288

A few years ago Jason Moore told the Midland city council that the bond debt for the local taxing entities was approaching a billion dollars. The council members scoffed at that. But here we are with a debt as of last year at $1.2 billion. So add another $100 million -- who cares?

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10:58 AM 11/9/2017</p

P.S. I've been wrestling with whether to continue subscribing to the pricey print edition of the Midland Reporter Telegram. Then something like that photo comes along and it makes the whole thing worthwhile.

Letters to morning paper editor propose better idea than road bond -- Midland, Texas

Voters in Midland, Texas, are facing an election next week where a $100,000,000 road bond will be voted up or down. See JPG on the right for the propositions. Elected council members tell us they must have it, and there's a well financed movement underway to get out the "yes" votes.

But wait a sec. These two letters to the editor in the 10-22-17 Midland Reporter Telegram -- from Rubin B. Reavis and Charles R. Sessions -- suggested a sales tax as a viable alternative to the bond. See below:

Not a bad suggestion. The idea isn't getting a lot of play, but it seems like a workable alternative.

Editor's note: The government is like Harvey Weinstein. Regular citizens are like Weinstein's girls. Resist and he can make life miserable for you. - Robo-ed.
Hey, that's pretty good! You really earned your pay this time! - Sleepless.
Pay! Ha! What pay! - Robo-ed.

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2:04 PM 10/28/2017

Houston just took a big hit as migrant magnet

The city of Houston and surrounding communities have been magnets for companies and individuals for decades. That's about to change.

Harris County has had a flood problem for a long time. Any heavy rain, which they have plenty of without a hurricane, typically results in street flooding. It may not have been obvious to those people in other states who sought a new locale. But with Harvey in the headlines, it is now.

Furthermore, residents in our little city of Midland, Texas, see local taxing entities hike their taxes every year without some calamity as an excuse. Residents in Harris County and the city of Houston are sure to see their taxes sky rocket even without talk of fixing the constant problem of water runoff.

Dallas and Austin got a big boost from this. People and companies looking for a Texas city governed by Democrats will gravitate to those cities over Houston for years to come.

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10:59 AM 9/1/2017

Left lane closed -- no your other left (continued)

It wasn't too many weeks ago that we noted a sign telling us the wrong lane was closed. It's happened again -- sign says "Left Lane Closed" when in fact it's the right lane that is closed. See photo.

Makes one wonder what's going on. Is there someone in the sign department who doesn't know left from right? Or are they out of the other signs?

Actually, by the standards of modern day political fact checkers the sign could be either wrong or right depending on where the fact checker stands. A lane on the other side of the yellow line is also closed, so if one wanted to make the stretch, saying the left lane is closed would be technically accurate. But those of us in the real world might expect the signage to provide guidance to the drivers who see it rather than to drivers going the opposite direction.  Is that too much to ask?

Modern cars provide everything but green traffic lights

There was a time not too very long ago when things like seat belts and right side rear view mirrors were optional on cars. Now days it seems like every feature any engineer can think up gets put in, with a corresponding price hike, of course. For example, some vehicles have sensors that will set of an alarm if it's about to back into an object. Some have TV screens where the driver can see what's back there. Some have both. Then there's the device that uses radar to detect whether another car is too close and sets off an alarm, or it might even put its own foot on the brakes.

It's all well and good that we arrive safely, but what we need is some technology to make the trip go a little quicker. Add the time a typical traffic light is yellow and red, and that time will exceed the time it will be green, so the odds are that at any random time more often than not a traffic light won't be green. Many a driver has encountered a frustrating red light at each lighted intersection between the starting point and the destination making a short trip seem like an eternity.

A traffic light that is oblivious to the traffic is a waste of time and energy. Now wouldn't it be nice if the traffic light system could sense the traffic flow and adjust accordingly? And who among us hasn't experienced a situation in which we face a red light, but there is no cross traffic? Like the conscientious, law abiding people we are, we just sit at that red light simply because it's red. A smart system might change the red light to a green light in that situation.

The "green movement" should be all over this. Instead of exotics like windmills, solar systems, and electric vehicles, they should focus on more efficient ways to get from here to there.

Here in Midland, Texas, fossil fuel is our life blood. But the citizens still like to save at the gas pump. And most don't like wasting time because of a poorly timed traffic light system. Our city leaders are planning to raise our taxes just like they do every year around this time. And all the city department heads are probably eagerly awaiting that new money so they can grow their departments, buy new hardware and build new buildings. It's probably too much to hope for, but it certainly would be nice if they could take a few steps to help the traffic flow a little bit smoother.

But there's hope elsewhere. Kurzweilai.net tells us about an ambitious program being tested in Michigan which lets vehicles communicate not only with the traffic lights but with each other to avoid accidents. If it works, full implementation will cost a lot of money and take years.

A much simpler program could work traffic lights for a better traffic flow now.

Left lane closed. No, your other left.

Left lane closed ahead.

No, your other left.

P.S. A snarky blogger might make a political joke right about now. Something like,

Shutting down the left is a shovel ready job, or

Government - the left hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. No wait, it's the other way around.

But no. Here at Sleepless in Midland we're above that sort of thing.

Ninja Road Repair Warriors

Mild mannered citizens by day, Ninja Road Repair Warriors by night -- dressed for success in black Ninja costumes, they sneak into position while the city sleeps. While Batman rids metropolises of criminal vermin, the Ninja Road Repair Warrior fills pot holes.

Blogging neighbor Wallace has reignited Mean Street Kick Ass in a desperate cry for help with a villainous pothole. But the contractors who would do that for the city street department are most likely tied up on other projects. And ordinary potholes may not be serious enough to pull the workers off those other jobs. As most of us eventually discover, many times it's easier to just do something ourselves rather than wait for someone else to do it.

So maybe it's time for some Ninja Road Repair Warriors to slip in late some night, clean the hole, dump in some EZStreet cold asphalt, tamp it down, then make a speedy getaway.

Who were those masked men and women? I dunno, but when they left, that pot hole was filled!

The intersection is open!

Today was the big grand opening of the intersection of Garfield St. and Golf Course Rd. in Midland, Texas. If you recall, the pipes under the street that carried rain runoff had rusted after having done their jobs for 35 years, and a cavern grew under the intersection. A small hole in the street was discovered, and that exposed the problem. The intersection was barricaded, and a month long street project began with a coordinated effort involving the city of Midland, Key Enterprises, Inc., and James Hindman, Inc.

And a major effort was made today to try to get the intersection open by 4:00 pm. Asphalt was laid, but the temperature was too cold for some of it to cure properly. So steel plates were laid on a problem area, and one lane remains closed.

I would have liked a ribbon cutting, but it was more like a synchronized movement of city vehicles to unblock the streets when the intersection finally opened.

Ever wonder how those white arrows and lane markings get stuck to the street? They come in pre-cut sections, and they are melted onto the street with torches reaching temperatures of 450 degrees.  Here are some photos.

The first car to travel through the intersection legally in almost a month came through at about 5:40 pm today. You can see it in the last photo -- a silver Camaro.

Road Repair -- snow day shut down

The road repair work at Garfield and Golf Course Rd., Midland, Texas, came to a standstill the other day when the rains first came. And the Friday morning snow didn't exactly light any fires.

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So the whole operation has been delayed. The good news for anyone hoping to use the intersection sometime soon is that, aside from laying a new surface, the work in the intersection itself appears to be getting close to an end. Work may continue West of the intersection, however.

A Prius in the Pit

Dig a hole, and someone will fall in.

It started a couple of weeks ago when a cavity was discovered under the intersection of Garfield and Golf Course Road in Midland, Texas. Work crews have dug up and replaced much of the bad water drainage pipe. But the work is not yet finished, and currently there's a deep ditch in the intersection.

Ditch Diving -- In the predawn hours this morning a woman drove a Prius past the "Road Closed" signs, plowing through the fence into the ditch.

Try to visualize this in slow motion. The vehicle enters the hole with the right wheels still on the street. The left wheels go into the hole tilting the car to the left. The car starts to roll, and while the vehicle is almost sideways, the left front strikes a conduit in the hole. That stops the front of the car, and the rear comes over the top. The car rights itself and settles at the bottom of the ditch, upright, facing the opposite direction from which it came.

Sunk in the Sink Hole -- The driver called in the accident report herself, and she was said to have incurred minor injuries. As you can see from one of the photos, the airbag had been deployed.

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Police officers speculated that alcohol may have been involved.

A welder's sparking rod - Plus a manhole exposed!

No, it's not gay porn. It's a water drainage pipe repair.

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There's something mesmerizing about welding. The sparks, the bright glow, the smoke -- it's a cross between 4th of July fireworks and Christmas lights. Throw in Labor Day, and it's a holiday triple treat.

Then there's the manhole. We've all seen manhole covers in sidewalks and streets. But did you ever wonder what the rest of it looks like? Well, there it is in fiberglass splendor.  A manhole xxxposed!

I didn't know what it was and had to ask. All of this is taking place at a road repair project at the intersection of Garfield and Golf Course Rd. in Midland, Texas.

I'm becoming a such a nuisance around that work site that I was told I need a hard hat, a reflective vest and safety glasses. In other words, gear up or get lost.

Road Repair -- work day two

It's the formerly busy intersection of Garfield Street and Golf Course Road in Midland, Texas, currently closed to traffic. City Engineer Rene Franks was kind enough to explain what happened in terms elementary enough that even I could understand.

There's good news, and there's bad news. First, the good news. The old pipe will be dug up in the intersection and replaced with new plastic pipe with a 50 year life expectancy. And the bad news? The intersection will probably be closed until after Thanksgiving. OK, we got that out of the way.

Ms. Franks provided a little history. There are some natural low spots in the area that have always accumulated rain water --maybe they were buffalo wallows. The city made these temporary reservoirs into parks, and drainage pipes were put under the streets so that the water could be pumped out of the parks.

But these 35 year old pipes developed problems in two ways.

The drainage pipes were coated with zinc which should prevent corrosion. However, a rock might enter the system and bounce along the bottom, nicking the zinc all along the way. Once the zinc was nicked, corrosion could occur. First a pin hole would develop, and the pressure of the draining water would create a jet of water which would eat away at the surrounding soil. The hole gets bigger, and water creates a cavern.

The other way, and the one which caused the most damage in this intersection, was a size mismatch in the drainage pipes. There's a water line crossing the spot where the drainage pipe was supposed to have been. And the original installers attempted to solve this problem by using a smaller diameter drain pipe in that spot to avoid having to move the water pipe. The smaller drain pipe was connected to the bigger drain pipe with an adapter. Eventually the adapter gave way, and a major soil erosion problem developed under the street producing a big cavern. But amazingly, a layer of caliche above the leak became so compacted that it formed a hard ceiling which prevented the street from collapsing into the cavern.

Ultimately, a small hole appeared at the surface, and that started this whole ball rolling.

P.S. The same thing happened a year ago at an intersection a mile West of this one. And there are drain pipe connections with the same type adapter all over the city.

Road Repair Day One -- a surgeon's touch with heavy equipment

It's the intersection of Garfield and Golf Course Road, Midland, Texas. Saturday afternoon a hole was discovered under the street, and it was determined that a water drainage pipe had ruptured. The spillage eroded the ground creating a cavern under the street.

Sunday was a day of rest, and repairs began today, Monday, as a crew used heavy equipment to dig up portions of the street. As you can see from the photos, standing water in the drain pipe must have rusted out the bottom.

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The CAT 416E operator looked like a surgeon performing a delicate operation as he carefully moved that heavy shovel in and around the gas pipe.  The only question now is how much of the drainage pipe to uncover, remove, and replace with more durable plastic.

Sorry commuters, it will still be a while before the intersection opens again.

Previously: Attention Midland Commuters -- a big hole where the street was.

Attention Midland commuters -- a big hole where the street was

Anyone who regularly passes through the intersection of Garfield St. and Golf Course Rd. in Midland, Texas, will need to plan for a traffic interruption the next few days.

One wonders how long it took to develop, but yesterday afternoon the surface finally broke. A driver saw a hole in the street and alerted firefighters at a nearby station. They took one look and called in the troops.

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The Street Department blocked nearby intersections and widened the hole for a better look.

 

It seems that a waste water line sprang a leak, and the escaping water washed out a significant amount of soil under the street. The result: a big bad hole. What a mess.

I'm tired.  Watching people work is such an exhausting endeavor.

Updated: See Road Repair Day One -- a surgeon's touch with heavy equipment.