ACHD's Road Wizard Sunday, April 16, 2017

By now, the term "Snowmageddon" should be packed up along with winter clothing. But the impacts from the record-breaking snowfall will last into T-shirt weather and beyond.

A chip seal preserves recently paved roads like Highland View Drive. The rougher chip seal surface is meant to take the abuse of traffic and weather.

Highland View is a fairly steep road and was frequently plowed. Unfortunately, the edges of the blades can catch imperfections in the road surface and scrape off bits of road along with the snow.

But at least it was the chip seal that was damaged instead of the original road underneath. Plows would be less likely to catch an edge on untreated asphalt, but it's rare for any street to be left unscathed after such extreme weather.

The same thing happened to chip seals on many other roads. ACHD will re-chip streets where the damage is a safety concern, but Highland View is mostly an aesthetic matter. The look will be improved somewhat after the street paint is refreshed this spring.

ACHD's website (which has a new look) includes a section under maintenance that addresses street sweeping. There is a link that shows scheduled locations for that current week that can help pin down sweeping dates. ACHD is working on providing more detailed information on sweeping in the future, but for now the best estimate is that residential roads in the Columbia and Cloverdale area will be swept in a few weeks.

Flashing yellow left-turn arrows have been the preferred "turn with caution when it's safe to do so" signals for about five years in Ada County. The consensus is that they have been around long enough that most drivers know how to use them, either by education or intuition.

Drivers can pull into the intersection as they wait to turn, but people who are more cautious may choose to stay at the stop bar. While that behavior can be frustrating for drivers next in line, it's not a cause for further education.