Wednesday, March 12, 2008

 

Honolulu as a brushfire zone?


by Larry Geller

I just came back from an errand. Entering the H-1 Westbound at the University onramp, I was amazed to see all the grass straw piled up alongside the roadway. Brown and drying, I was afraid that the first cigarette butt tossed out of a car window could set the entire area on fire.

A couple of months ago the grass was so high at this already short and hazardous onramp that drivers wanting to merge into traffic could not see the traffic lanes through their left-side or rear-view mirrors. I and no doubt others complained about this, and there was at least one letter to the editor published, I recall. After a while, the grass was cut. It seems that the contract to cut maintain the roadway had expired and was not replaced.

Now there are piles of straw, probably killing the grass that had been planted there. It looks like a fire hazard, although I admit that I can't tell if it is wet brown or dry brown. No one has taken it away, and that can't be good.

It seems we can't even do simple, routine maintenance on our infrastructure (don't forget neglected dams that burst, etc., etc.).

So we're going to build and operate a train?




Comments:

>>>It seems we can't even do simple, routine maintenance on our infrastructure (don't forget neglected dams that burst, etc., etc.).

So we're going to build and operate a train?<<<

Isn't the "train" a C&C project? Aren't the freeways (and dams) a state affair?
 


Yes, the highways are state.

I should have written a wee bit more to be clear, I guess. I think it's a cultural issue. For the City, maybe I should have mentioned the potholes and the poor road maintenance, the failure to keep paint on the crosswalks, etc. I had a lot in my mind but was afraid it would turn into a rant.
 


If we weren't so car oriented in our lifestyles and our thinking these kinds of car oriented problems would not be problems. Just think, with a train, you wouldn't have to worry about a bunch of grass blocking site distance. But when everything is oriented around the car its pretty hard to keep up with maintenance. Josephine
 

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