Bicycling network!

Due to the determined efforts of some boy scouts from Troop 92 and several residents on Gold Hill Road, DOT may construct a bike and pedestrian path along Gold Hill Road. Gold Hill has been pretty dangerous for bikers and walkers, as there is NO shoulder whatsoever, and there have been accidents, kids and adults struck by cars. Adding this path to the road would, as did the bike path along the Parks Highway, improve safety and really encourage more bicycling, skateboarding, skating, and so forth. And it would provide those ski teams with a safe place to practice during the summer, instead of scaring the bejeesus out of drivers.

DOT is holding an open house on the topic at the Annex, Thursday, December 9, from 4 to 7 pm. DOT is looking for comments from the public on this, and will have four alternative plans. Al Beck, the engineering manager, emphasized to me that this project has come from the grassroots up and needs the feedback from the community. Is preserving the trees important to you? speak up. Is there an alternative design that they should consider? bring your ideas with you. Should the scope of the project include the whole of Gold Hill Road or only part of it? now's your chance to let them know. Any aspect of the project: how it should be executed, where, if, all of that: let them know iat this meeting. If you can't make it in person, you can still comment or ask questions to inform your comments, by contacting Beck at 451-5359 or e-mailing him at albert.beck@alaska.gov. If you want, you can fax them to 451-5126, attention Al Beck.

Alternative one: widen the shoulders on each side of the road, making each shoulder a one-way bike lane. (See the overall road view, with property lines, earthwork lines, existing road, and proposed road limits, in a PDF at DOT.) This alternative would, it looks like, double the size of the roadway (shrubbery would have to be cleared, too).

Here is a cutaway view of what might be a typical section of the road (showing filled roadsides and ditched or cut roadsides).



Alternative two: create an attached two-lane path on one side of Gold Hill Road. (See the overall road view PDF at DOT.)

Here's the cutaway of the attached path.



Alternative three: create a separated bike path (as on the Parks Highway). While this is probably the safest, it takes up the most room and wipes out the most trees. (See the overal road view PDF at DOT.)

Here's the cutaway of the separated path.



Alternative four: take the existing road and make it one-way for automobile traffic (the map shows that as toward UAF), using part of the road for a bike path. This is rather a novel approach, and would serve to encourage bike and pedestrian traffic over vehicular traffic. It would also be the no-disruption version in terms of road-widening or property impact. I don't think it would fly, though--there's just too many people living on the road who rely on cars. Here's the cutaway of this version.

Ye Olde Independence Day Celebration and Hoo-Roar

Yes,it's that time of year again. The annual 4th of July parade & picnic is about to deluge Ester with gazillions of people who aren't into the militaristic display at Pioneer Park or the (now not-happening) Fairbanks parade. Folks who like a bit of political and social satire (well, okay, a LOT of satire) with their floats come out to Our Fair Republic for a lot of beverage-through-the-nose-snorting fun on Independence Day here where Progress Is Our Least Important Product. For those unsuspecting innocents who don't realize that off-color and politically incorrect silliness is the usual fare at this event, consider yourselves forewarned.

After the parade comes the Park Picnic, put on by the Ester Community Association. A large roast beast (usually a pig) is served up to the public, purchased and cooked by the Ester Volunteer Firefighters' Auxiliary, along with the usual hot dogs, potato salad, watermelon, et cetera, from the ECA. Be prepared to bring a large side dish full o' your most succulent potluck food, and to shell out a donation. The money raised at this event (also known as Organized Eating and Fun & Games) is used to help Ester firefighters in the aftermath of a fire, keep the park ship-shape, and pay for all that food and beverage and flatware provided to the public.

Details: parade check-in (for participants) 11 am, Main Street & Ester Loop. Kids on bikes should wear a (preferably wildly decorated) helmet. Getcher paper plate when you sign in so the judges can tell who you are so's to give you a Fabulous Award. Don't forget to bribe the judges early, well, and often.

The parade starts at noon for all you Designated Spectators, and the picnic starts after the parade reaches the park. Be prepared for Silly Games and Water Sports (willing or non).

Rumor has it that the Red Hackle Bagpipe Band will be back and in surprising costume. The Banana Girls will return but may not be as organized as last year. There is also a rumor that actual Republican candidates will walk this year. Let's hope they're not as serious as the Democrats have been. Other than that, the Publisher has no word of the contents of aforementioned parade.

See you there!

A land planning alert from Roy Earnest

The Department of Transportation has several Ester-area projects on its slate. Roy Earnest sent me this note about the plans:

The STIP (Statewide Transportation & Improvement Program) is money set for the future at best and money that can be pulled at any time when it is at its worst. Please keep in mind that nothing is for certain when looking at monies set to future programs. The Gold Hill Bike trail in probably the firmest of the three projects that fall under STIP. Futher letters from the community are helpful but the ranking (or points given to the program) are high and the project looks like a go.

The Old Nenana and the Potter road project are both well place point wise but letter or comment to the DOT (specifically to Margaret Carpenter) are needed and necessary.

First, the Potter road to Destiny Drive (Name: Cripple Creek Road upgrade has an ID number 24522. The upgrade will use asphalt concrete to pave the existing gravel surface, including realignment of the substandard series of curves. The road will give better access to VFD and residents. The project is slated to begin and end work in 2010. If this upgrade interests or affect you directly please let Ms. Carpenter know at margaret.carpenter@alaska.gov.

The Old Nenana/Ester Hill Rehabilitation Project has an ID number of 7461

Project Description:
Rehabilitation along the ONH will include improving shoulders, drainage, signage, and guardrails.

Issues:
1. The Old Nenana Highway has steep grades, narrow roadway (20-22 feet), poor pavement conditions, and steep slopes. The sharp curve at the bottom of the hill is an issue to the DOT so they are looking into safety-related improvemnets. Because this area is especially hazadous in the winter when the road gets icy, there is probably going to be some kind of change in this area.

2. Recreation traffic on the ONH has increased ten-fold. The UAF ski team, Fairbanks Cycling club and walkers are all users of the road. A bike trail would be the most safest answer the money nedded for this kind of upgrade is large.

3. Fairbanks North Star Borough continues to sell off large tracts of land. They are in the process of trying to build a subdivision with 31 lots on it. The increase trafic load in the next 5 years alone are staggering.

Answers:

Widen the ONH wide enough for driver visibility and recreation users dafety. Upgrade the road to a asphalt surface that does not come apart every year due to substandard chipseal and poor foundation. Either a trail on the side or standalone seems appropriate.

The deadline for public comment is Friday, October 16. Please comment!

Bicycle bill

This bill is in the House Finance Committee: HB 132 Bicycle Program. The bill was introduced by Rep. Paul Seaton (here's his statement about it). It would, according to the the university's Juneau Update,

allow appropriations and grants to be used for establishing and maintaining bicycle paths, and would establish a grant program within the Department of Commerce, Community & Economic Development for encouraging safe bicycle ridership. The grant program would allow municipalities and nonprofit organizations to apply for financial assistance to establish programs for the purchase, maintenance, and repair of bicycles, bicycle helmets, and bicycle trailers.

Sounds good to me. It sounds good to the Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage, too. The Juneau Empire's Kate Golden had an interesting article on Alaska bicycling in relation to the bill, and this tidbit caught my eye:

Despite the winter, Alaska ranks sixth in the nation in the proportion of people biking to work, according to Bob Laurie, Alaska Department of Transportation's bicycle advocate. (The state ranks first in the percentage who walk to work.) Yet the American League of Bicyclists ranked the state 43rd in overall bike-friendliness, and Sitka is the state's only officially bike-friendly community.

This might be helpful in getting that bicycle trail built on Gold Hill Road, and maybe for getting kids' bike helmets for the ECA for the Fourth of July Parade.

The Publisher's Picks 2009

Wowsa. That was one hell of a party. The bands were GREAT. There was enough food, and everyone seemed to have a good time. There were HUNDREDS of people. The Publisher's Picks went very rapidly, because only a few people were on hand to receive their awards, but here's the rundown:

• Satire: this award went to "Ester Thought Posse Report," to the Ester Thought Posse Company, Dr. Bhagat, Deepa Bhagat, and Soo Ichy, who were foiled in their attempts to make Ester a clean-thinking environment.

• Review: runner-up in this category went to Gabriel Hill, for "Hot Off the Griddle", a review of the Easton Stagger Philips CD, One for the Ditch. Gabe, after listening to the album, believes the world is gonna be alright.

The Publisher's Pick for Review went to David A. James for his review, "Shwing!” of the book, A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis. He figured it was time to review a book about dicks, and said so.

• Letter to the Editor: this was a tie between two letters by the same author, Eric Forrer, an observer of human endeavor, for “Six-Pack Punctuation” & "Stupid Watery Ideas", on the value of substance and eduction in politics and the folly of water sports, respectively.

There was a dishonorable mention in this category again this year, for “Trying for Another Dishonorable Mention”, a short insult-filled diatribe railing against the paper, by W.J. Stringer, subscriber (also known as His Very Fine Excellency, William the First, Emperor), whose post in government has gone to his head.

• Poesy: this was awarded for “Before the Riot,” a free-verse poem by Shanna Karella, who longs for spring.

• Travel Writing: went to “Ticolandia,” about a journey to Costa Rica, by Dan Darrow, whose house is full of monkeys.

• Wildlife Photograph: this was awarded for “the Bear-tender,” a cover photo taken by CP McRoy, Intrepid Wildlife Photographer, who kept safely on the other side of the window.

• Portrait: this was awarded for “Joe Geiss, EHL player,” a cover photo capturing the essence of Interior masculinity in the wintertime, taken by Monique Musick, another intrepid photographer.

• Sports Writing: this went to “Fairbanks Spring Hysteria,”, a story on the origins of the Great Tanana Raft Classic, written by Admiral Merritt Helfferich and Commodore George Cresswell, instigators of inspired lunacy.

• Cartoon: this, as always, was a tough category. The first runner-up was for “Bail-Out,” an editorial cartoon by Jamie Smith, economic prognosticator.

The Publisher's Pick in this category was "Tom DeLong: Party Crasher,” an editorial cartoon by Dan Darrow, who was rooting for the underdog.

• Column: this award was given for “Dose of Reality,” a journey through the Byzantine world of medical finance, by Neil Davis, who is slogging through the morass for the rest of us.

• Most Delicious: this went to “Greek New Year,” recipes by Mary Wagner, who watches Dr. Zhivago every New Year's Eve.

• Most Independent: this was awarded for the article, “In Defense of the Lunatics,” on winter bicycling, by Mary Wagner,
an all-weather bike commuter.

• Most republican (note the lower-case "r"): this Publisher's Pick was awarded for “The Long View,” a column on the history of Alaska by Ross Coen, who, by reminding us of where we've been, helps us keep an eye on where we're going.

• Esteroidia: this is awarded for an item illustrating or exemplary of life in the People's Republic of Ester. This year, the Pick was “The Center of the Universe,” a letter to the editor on the geography of Ester by Average John Reeves, subscriber.

and last but not least,

• the Mike Kelly Award, presented to those who provide a much-needed civics lesson, science education, or sex advice (or all of the above): this went to “Live Free or Die,” a column by irregulars Hannah Hill & Kate Billington, who kept Lady Liberty's torch lit in dark and troubled times.

Berries and other random thoughts

Lunchtime. I'm eating a salad, made with locally grown, Calypso farm lettuce and Deirdre Helfferich garden lettuce (also originally from Calypso, but that was when they were mere sprouts--they had to grow up in the rough-and-tumble weed-laden neighborhood of MY garden to get to edible size), also nasturtium flowers from my own garden; imported olives (green with pimentos), olive oil, basalmic vinegar, and okra (pickled, spicey). Pretty tasty.

This weekend I went berry picking with friends, getting blueberries, crowberries, and bearberries (a very few). Brought the Bad White Dog along the first two days for bear-scaring company (more about the BWD in the next post), and Monkey the Old Man Dog (who's actually rather young) the next day. He wasn't so good at the bear-scaring: bear scat all over, big bear paw print right nearby. We moved elsewhere to avoid any, um, distressing situations. It was really wonderful, however, to pick and hear the wind blow, voices from far away, birds croaking. No such thing as silence, really--but it was very soothing. Sunny sometimes, overcast others, but warm and pleasant.

Growing or gathering food is something that makes me happy. It satisfies something that just doesn't come any other way. Certainly not going to a supermarket, which is an almost painful experience. Too much crap. The pain is on an almost subliminal level, ignorable, mostly. Going to a fresh food stand, like picking up the share at Calypso's tent once a week, is much better, a social occasion out in the open, but still a bit hectic, still not as deeply pleasing as picking it myself.

I've been thinking about how to move into a greener mode. ('Spose I really should start bicycling.) Anarchy in the AK talks about the problem of greenwashing. This morning, listening to Democracy Now! there was a wonderful interview with Andrew Bacevich about his book The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, who nailed one of the basic problems with American living (and government policy) right on the head:

I think the great majority of us basically have allowed ourselves to become seduced by this culture of consumption, of not taking seriously the notion that someday the bills come due, that you can’t simply run up a line of credit that stretches from here to infinity. We don’t want to look ourselves in the mirror. We don’t want to recognize the need to make some changes in the way we live.

It's not just our credit card bills, or our mortgages, or our national debt: it's the use-it-up-now mentality that makes frugality unfashionable and spendthrift behavior the norm. Buy, buy, buy all that crap, all those shiny useless toys. Use up our nonrenewable resources NOW, because they're there, because we can. Forget about saving, anything.

And me, what do I do? Well, I'm not bicycling, that's for sure--and that's stupid. Because the bills really are coming due, now. On a grand scale. And on the local scale, soon enough.

Attn Bicyclists: A Letter from Steve Titus, DOT

As posted in the Ester Post Office:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Department’s recent design change on the bike path from Ester to Fairbanks. Specifically, we decided not to use crushed D-1 aggregate under the asphalt in the bike path. The decision was made after we confirmed that the pavement could be placed on the alluvial gravel material in compliance with our design standards and that the material would provide the structural support and the smooth surface we needed for the path.

The Parks Rehabilitation project includes reconditioning the existing roadway surface by grinding up the existing asphalt and repaving the surface. In the course of construction we encountered areas that required the removal of thick sections of patched pavement. This resulted in a shortage of material and significant overrun of D-1 to be used in the roadway.  

The original design of the bike path embankment called for 3 feet of alluvial gravel, topped by 4 inches of D-1 and 2 inches of pavement. We specified “alluvial” gravel because we were concerned that the locally available “tailings” would not give us the desired drainage. The D-1 layer in bike path design is often included to provide a smooth surface on which to place pavement.

To keep the overrun of D-1 to minimum, we looked at the option of paving the bike path on the alluvial gravel rather than on the pavement. This option was discussed with our Preconstruction section to assure that we were complying with our design standards. Additionally, the option was discussed with our Materials section to affirm that the D-1 layer was not needed for structural purposes. It was determined that the alluvial borrow material was more than sufficient for structural purposes on a bike path and that it would provide a suitable paving surface. In short, the only purpose the D-1 layer served for the bike path portion of the project was for a surface for placing pavement and as an additional and unnecessary structural layer in this project. 

The decision to use the D-1 in the roadway, rather than in the bike path, will result in a savings to the State of approximately $80,000 with no impact on the life expectancy of the facility. Furthermore, the bike trail will be structurally sound and the pavement will be smooth.

In every transportation project, our designs are tested in the field. Occasionally, we modify or change our original plan when faced with real world site conditions. We take every one of these decisions seriously and made these decisions based on the professional advice from our engineering and geologist technical experts. The elimination of the D-1 was just one of those types of decisions and we feel confident that it is a good decision that reduces the fiscal impact to the State. It will allow the Department to spend those fund on other needed projects in the Northern Region.

Thank you again for contacting me regarding this project.

Sincerely,
Steve Titus, P.E.
Regional Director

The bicycle's scoop on gravel

Looks like the concern was a false alarm, thank goodness. My apologies for the rant. It turns out that whether you use D-1 or borrow on an actual road will make a big difference in how long it lasts, but on a bicycle path it does not.

According to Robert Perkins at the School of Engineering and Management in the Institute of Northern Engineering at UAF, the difference between pit run or borrow and D-1 is that pit run tends to be rounded and biggish, and D-1 is crushed and smaller, making for little interlocking chunks that are more stable. It's also a difference of about $100 a yard, according to Perkins, so it's a lot cheaper to use pit run. One of the main reasons bike paths fail in Alaska is because of melting permafrost and frost heaving in the spring, so to keep them from breaking up, a good six feet of gravel needs to be laid down.

According to Billy Conner, another UAF engineer, D-1 gravel is stronger, and easier to work with and grade. However, given the load that a bike path will take, the difference is neglible, so long as the fines (silt) content in the pit run gravel doesn't exceed 6% by weight. Where D-1 makes a significant difference, however, is on the highway, where the load includes big
heavy mondo trucks day after day. Conner tells me that DOT did in fact make an experiemental strip of bike path several years ago down by Eagle River using pit run, just to make sure, and there was no discernable difference in the wear between that and bike paths made using D-1.

Conner also told me that the biggest threat to bike paths is the environment. There's really no difference, he said, in resistance to shrubbery and other plants--willows and alders are about equally destructive no matter what sort of gravel is used.

So we'll see just how durable our new bike path is.

Bike paths, by the way, are important enough that, according to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Provisions guide on the Federal Highway Administration's website,

Congress clearly intends for bicyclists and pedestrians to have safe, convenient access to the transportation system and sees every transportation improvement as an opportunity to enhance the safety and convenience of the two modes. "Due consideration" of bicycle and pedestrian needs should include, at a minimum, a presumption that bicyclists and pedestrians will be accommodated in the design of new and improved transportation facilities. In the planning, design, and operation of transportation facilities, bicyclists and pedestrians should be included as a matter of routine, and the decision to not accommodate them should be the exception rather than the rule. There must be exceptional circumstances for denying bicycle and pedestrian access either by prohibition or by designing highways that are incompatible with safe, convenient walking and bicycling....Maintaining access to the transportation system for nonmotorized users is not an optional activity.

More on the bike path: penny wise and pound foolish?

Mike Musick heard this same rumor about the bike path on Thursday night, and Friday he went and spoke with the DOT Parks Highway Rehabilitation Project manager, who confirmed that yes, it was true, they've changed the specifications to eliminate the requirement for D-1 gravel on the bike path, for economic reasons. The $70,000 figure is correct. The D-1 gravel used already on the main road has exceeded the design requirements for the whole project. (Mike also called the DOT director for the Fairbanks area, who also confirmed that the design change was authorized.)

Neither of the engineers Mike spoke with seemed to think that this change would cause the bike path to prematurely break up or fail, but I'm not too confident of DOT engineering judgement when it comes to road surfacing, given the recent example of Ester Dome Road's disastrous paving, which became almost impassable after a single spring.

However, the Dome Road is different terrain (hill rather than black spruce bog, tailings, and white spruce forest) and was paved with chip seal. Still, this makes me very leery, and I'm left with some questions: why did all the D-1 gravel get used up? did the specs not provide for enough for the project to be done right? did Exclusive Paving (the company that got the paving bid) not allocate the gravel appropriately when deciding where to put it? How long is the paving expected to last with borrow vs. D-1 under it? What is considered "premature"? Shouldn't they have let the community know about a change like this? Was it posted anywhere? Feedback requested?

We apparently have very, very little time to find out the answers to these or other questions and to call for a change if it turns out that DOT's not made a good decision. Paving is proceeding on the road, and will start very soon on the path. Once it's done there, it'll be too late to change anything. So I intend to call Monday early.

We've worked 20 years for a bike path, and now this?

Word reached me today of a classic construction-company scandal brewing with regard to the Ester-Fairbanks bike path. It seems, per my anonymous source, that the construction company redoing the segment of highway between Ester and Fairbanks ran out of their allotment of D1 gravel, the nice small stuff that they put as the last layer under the asphalt to make the road flexible and difficult for willows and frost heaves to break up the pavement. So, their plan is to use an inferior grade of gravel called borrow, with no D1 gravel, and less pavement on top (only two inches). This will save them $70,000 but will mean that the bike path will start falling apart in two years.

Ester hasn't been working for the last two decades on getting this bike path just so we could get a crappy path that will crumble from shoddy workmanship in two years! This kind of inferior construction will make the path dangerous.

What's worse is that DOT apparently plans to sign off on this cruddy bit of planned obsolescence.

The one part that they already paved and used as a temporary bypass, the part between Gold Hill and Lost Lane, has six inches of asphalt and nice extra thick padding with D1 gravel, so at least that part will be in good shape.


View Larger Map

If anyone has further information on this, please contact me right away. I may publish an extra Extra on it.

Some people to contact:

Joe Thomas: Senator_Joe_Thomas@legis.state.ak.us
David Guttenberg: Representative_David_Guttenberg@legis.state.ak.us
DOT project engineer: 451-5483

The project is known as PARKS HIGHWAY MP 351-356 REHABILITATION, Project# / Federal#: 66438 / AC-IM-0A4-5(13).

Raise holy hell, folks. We need to find out what's going on and make sure we aren't getting shortchanged.

I'll post more information as I find out more about it.

Road kill

This week's Carnival of the Green has a story on it by Jacobito about a personal experience with a hit-and-run driver who (probably) killed a bicyclist right next to him. Jacobito muses on the daily sacrifices to the almighty automobile that we make:

We seem to think secular society gave up sacrifice years ago, or that sacrifice only occurs by soldiers in war to consecrate the nation. I don't know though. More people die in car accidents than all our wars combined.

Who are the real victims of sacrifice? Who is really consecrating the nation, making it sacred? Or are we consecrating something else? What? Cars? Transportation? Speed? Oil? Technology? Individuality? What is the meaning that all these bodies, like the one I saw last night, give and to whom or what do they give it? Its easy to say thats its meaningless death. I don't think so though. The consistency, normalcy, complacency, and universality of such deaths in the USA are too blatant to ignore. If the highway is our national graveyard, the cars the tombstones, the police and ambulances the priests, then what is the prayer that ties it all together?

I've been bicycling quite a bit this summer, to and from work about 5 or so miles each way. The road is littered with corpses: hares, birds, squirrels, voles, wasps, bumblebees, butterflies, dragonflies...our roads are paved with deaths, most of which we don't notice. There are the deaths from impact, the deaths from air pollution, the deaths from oil spills, the deaths from cancers caused by chemicals made from oil, the deaths from wars over oil.

We drive Death to his appointed rounds, enablers and apprentices, all of us. Switching to ethanol, or electric, or hybrid, won't relieve us of this. Driving less, or more slowly, will. Yet, the car has given human beings an incredibly valuable freedom, and this is why all those bloody, flattened corpses are ignored. The ability to leave one's little hamlet and go somewhere else without taking all day to get to the next little village, or a week to get to the next city, is a driving force in our vibrant modern cultures. The ability to move, to go, to explore is now available to the mass of people, not just the wealthy or crazy few.

Still, cars are expensive, in more ways than one. Bicycles give a similar freedom, although not as fast; so do scooters and motorcycles and small cars. These all cause a lot less damage then do the big cars Americans seem to love so much.

Small is beautiful!