Posted 10/11/2007 05:27:00 PM by Douglas

TX DoT's unwavering dedication to safety continues, unabated. [click on the tag if you want to read up on this stupidity from three years ago]

The highway hazard elimination project that drew howls of protest from people the last couple years opposing removal of Panhandle trees is now in its second phase.

Ninety-seven trees along the U.S. 60 and U.S. 83 roadways were slated for removal, and all but a few in Ochiltree County are down.

Other aspects of hazard elimination in Gray, Roberts, Hemphill and Lipscomb counties still are under construction and about 50 percent complete, said Kenneth Corse, Texas Department of Transportation area engineer for those counties. He is based in Pampa.

A public outcry ensued when the original 2004 plan called for the state to remove 1,185 trees in Hemphill, Roberts, Lipscomb, Ochiltree and Gray counties. Highway safety guidelines generally call for cutting trees within a 16-feet safety zone from the white line at the roadway's edge. A 30-feet wide safety zone is recommended for more heavily traveled roadways.

193 structurally deficient bridges in Texas and this is what they're wasting your money on?!?

Panhandle TX DoT are remarkably stupid (even when gauged against nominal TX DoT stupidity) and not a one of them has ever been East of Wichita Falls. I would hate to see one of these morons navigate Texas 241 between Linwood and Rusk in East Texas. The Piney Woods would make short work of these fools.

Labels: Killer Trees

Posted 11/05/2004 04:06:00 PM by Douglas

Tasked with keeping the thousands of miles of Texas highways safe, TX-DOT is still focusing on the most menacing threats to Panhandle-area drivers. Trees. That's right, those big woody, stationary objects next to the road.

The gently rolling highways leading into Canadian are dotted with small groves of Siberian elms, hackberry trees and looming cottonwoods, their leaves aglow in golden fall colors.

To some area residents, they're an all too-sparse reminder of nature's beauty and a potent lure for fall tourism.

But to highway safety experts, they're a deadly accident waiting to happen.

Last spring, TxDOT's initial proposal was to cut down 1,185 trees along roadways in Hemphill, Roberts, Lipscomb, Ochiltree and Gray counties, but Mark Tomlinson, TxDOT's Amarillo district engineer, said public outcry has caused the agency to review its plans.

Is TxDOT really that stupid, or are they just looking for a way to waste money? I know! This is probably president Bush's timber company that he didn't know he owned.

Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't a tree next to the road an exponentially smaller threat to anything that's actually in the road? Unless these trees jump out at oncoming cars, there's nothing to you do hit them unless you run of the road. And if you make it a habit of running off the road, you're going to run into something eventually. Trust me. I've got some research data on this one. But they get dumber:

Bill Jordan, another TxDOT official, said a contractor recently completed an environmental survey of all trees in a 30-foot "clear zone'' along U.S. Highways 60 and 83 in Hemphill and five other area counties.

The survey indicated that cutting down trees in those areas would not significantly impact any endangered or threatened species. The tree-cutting proposal would have a limited impact on some hawks and other raptors, he said, but those species and other bird species probably would move nesting sites.

Reducing the number of trees along roadways, Jordan said, could reduce raptor kills of Texas horned lizards and other prey species.

This is the kind of thing that makes me want to become a Libertarian anarchist. Do you have become this stupid when you work for the state, or do they only hire idiots? Never underestimate a state employee and a "survey." So by clearing all trees 30 feet from the highway, no endangered birds are going to be impacted? How are you going to swing that?

Overall, the impact to nesting birds would be minimal, Jordan said, if the trees are cut down when birds are not nesting.

Are they going to leave notes in their nests?

Dear bird:

Beat it, 'cause we're cutting down your tree so some drunk cowboy doesn't swerve off the road and ruin his new truck. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause you, but frankly, you're eating to many horned toads.

Your friendly TxDOT morons.

Seriously, doesn't TxDOT have anything better to do than removing trees from an already treeless plain?

Labels: Killer Trees

Posted 8/12/2004 05:10:00 PM by Douglas

Thank God that the Texas Department of Transportation is getting up every morning and protecting the citizens of Texas from the things that threaten us the most. Trees.

Carlos Lopez, the director of traffic operations for TxDOT, and his contingent were in Canadian on Tuesday afternoon to explain the department's plan to cut down trees to make the highways safer.

The original plan was to cut down 1,187 trees within 30 feet of U.S. 60 and U.S. 87 from Pampa to Canadian to Perryton. Tomlinson said the 30-foot designation provided a safety zone, but he said that in some instances there were alternatives such as putting guardrails around trees.

I know folks on the Panhandle Plains are a bit uncomfortable around trees, but trust me on this one, there are lots of people that live around many trees that are able to negotiate these obstacles with relative ease. I realize when a single tree is the only thing obstructing your view for 40 miles, you could see it as an danger, or even an eyesore. But trees are relatively hard to miss, and they rarely just sneak up on you.

"I think Texas would be poorer to cut down any of these trees," said Dr. Malouf Abraham, a retired physician from Canadian.

If Dr. Abraham can't get TxDoT to take their chainsaws elsewhere, no one can.

Labels: Killer Trees