The Daring and the Foolhardy

As you can see, I have been adjusting my sidebar the past day or two. I have come up with a final look that I am pleased with. Before I go any further into the sidebar, I will explain the quote that I chose for my blog title.

I have always been intrigued by the ocean, sailing, and the history. Well when A&E released the Horatio Hornblower movies, I was thrilled. I loved the first set (4) of movies and the two sets of 2 that followed. Well, after the movies began to introduce me to the story and I realized that they were based on novels by C.S. Forester I had to read the books.

As in all cases, the books were better than the movies (even though the movies did an incredible job, nevertheless). To the quote now, Admiral Cornwallis (Captain Pellew in the movies) states this to Hornblower as he sends Hornblower off to investigate the French coast during a seize fire. What is meant by it is that any action Hornblower took could be interpretted to be the correct or incorrect depending upon the results. Admiral Cornwallis went on to say that he would defend Hornblower's actions if the results were negative. He knew he had a brilliant young commander at his disposal.

On to the side bar, I was inspired my friend, Andy Kannenberg, to start my blog after reading his for a couple of weeks. I placed him (and myself) under daring. We dared to start a blog ;)
Well, we have been trying to convince our other friends from college to also start blogs, so I placed them under foolhardy as a punishment of sorts.

(does this title sound like a soap opera title to anyone else? hmm after reading all of CS Forester's Hornblower books, I think that A&E should continue making their movies untill all of the novels are covered... any A&E execs reading this?)

Red Mountain APDR

I really don't have anything to rant and roar about tonight, so I am going to write about my job.

As I have stated already, I work for the Washington State Department of Transportation in Yakima, WA. I am in the Project Development office.

When not being sent to different WSDOT training classes, I have been working on an Access Point Decision Report (APDR). An APDR is written to request permission for a new interchange or an interchange modification project to the interstate system. The APDR is submitted to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

The APDR I am writing is for a new interchange on I-82. The approximate location can be seen in the below image.I guess I can rant a little about this project. The FHWA states that an existing or anticipated need must be established for an APDR to be approved. Northeast (up and right) of the proposed interchange is the City of West Richland and the driving force behind the interchange. A large part of their need is the fact that the city has zoned land for light industial and commercial use. This land is currently sage brush and irrigated fields; the city has no gurantee that the land will develop. They are operating on the "if you build it, they will come" scenario. Which is a probably tru, but it is not the way the FHWA apporves APDRs.

Or so their literature claims. After a meeting between WSDOT officials, City and County officials, and FHWA representative, I am informed that the FHWA rep. was convinced that a need exists.

Actually, I do see the need for some sort of solution in the area too. FHWA states that the adjacent interchanges must be considered in an APDR. Well, one of the two adjacent interchanges is a system interchange (interstate to interstate) so traffic can not exit to local roads. The other is will have a failing level of services (FHWA traffic capacity rating) in the future (according to model data/projections) performed by the county.

The questions are:

1. Will future development be realized within the 20 year design window?
2. Can the existing service (access to local roadways) interchange be fixed without building a new interchange?

Well, we have continues to prepare the APDR, except for the Operational (level of service) part. We have requested that the county rerun their model with WSDOT traffic counts. Once we have the new model results we will review them and, hopefully, deem the model acceptable.

I apologize if this isn't flowing very well. but I am not going to fix it.

Couple of additional thoughts:

1. If you haven't guessed it, my office hasn't done an APDR either ever or in so long that all connected to it have retired.
2. This project has more political backing than number backing.
   
3. After all of our negative thinking, we have discovered that the FHWA (or at least the local FHWA officials) does not follow the proverbial book.

Well, if you aren't confused or plagued by a headache, feel free to email me any questions. I will do my best to answer them and clarify any thing I phrased poorly.

Roundabouts... black holes of civil engineering?

Roundabouts seem to fascinate Americans. I am not entirely sure why, except that there are very few roundabouts in the United States. I had never encountered one until I moved to Washington (state). Someone in the WSDOT seems almost obsessed with them; there is an entire section in the Design Manual for the design of roundabouts. And a number of them in operation across the state with at least one more to be constructed in the near future. I know of two problem intersections where the idea of a roundabout is being considered.

I am still not sure on my view of roundabouts, but they do remove all left turn movements. This provides for a more efficient intersection. Other than taking up more land, there are very few negatives about them. I have heard people say that most drivers don't know how to navigate through a roundabout, but I feel that with proper signing it is simple to figure out. Below is the lone roundabout in Yakima. What appears to be a sidewalk around the center is in fact extra space for trucks/semis navigating the roundabout.The perfect situation for a roundabout is when an intersection has more than 4 legs (even though I would prefer to see the rouds rerouted instead). Swindon, England took this a little too far and came up with what they call the 'Magic Roundabout.' Pictured below:
I believe I can speak for nearly everyone in the world when I say 'FRELL!' Apparently, it does operate well. In the U.S., where the traveling public is less accustomed to roundabouts this would be a nightmare (accidents, road rage, etc.).

A college friend and I recently noted how many comedies, including, The Simpsons and National Lampoon's European Vacation, show drivers just driving around roundabouts for hours, never exiting. We joked about how roundabouts must be a kind of black hole... capturing and holding cars with, presumably, a gravitational pull.

Well, if I was either a better writer or had a more inventive imagination I could continue to rant and roar about roundabouts, but neither applies to me so... THE END.

In the words of Dierks Bentley, what am (was) I thinking?

I never thought I would try my hand at keeping a blog, but the NFL season is almost over. I need something new to keep busy. Actually, a friend of mine started one and it seems like a fun idea; let's just hope I can keep this up longer than a month or two.

Well, a little about myself...
I graduated from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT) with a B.S. in Civil Engineering last May (2005). I spent the better part of that May applying and interviewing for jobs. I finally recieved a job offer on May 25, 2005 from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT); a day after my interview! I ended up in Yakima, WA.

A little about Yakima, Washington, and the WSDOT
Yakima is located in the south central part of the state, but still on the east side. Washington state is extremely different depeding on what side of the Cascade Mountain Range is considered. The West Side is what most people in the U.S. think of Washington:

1. It rains alot. The average annual precipitation in Seattle is 37.19 inches.
2. Forests
3. Seattle
4. HIGH Cost of Living

The East side is:

1. DRY, the average annual precipitation is 7.98 inches.
2. Natural vegetation = SAGEBRUSH Even though thanks to irrigation, The area around Yakima produces many bushels of apples. Also, wineries are popping up allover South Central Washington.
3. Lower Cost of Living (but still higher than South Dakota)
   

The WSDOT is hardup for entry level engineers all across the state. The problem on the West side of the Cascades is that the salary is based upon the statewide cost of living, rather than a westside cost of living. This leads to a substantially lower pay than engineers with private firms. This leads to high turnover rates for the WSDOT on the west side of the state. For example, I have heard it stated (from WSDOT employees residing on the west side) that a 'veteran' design engineer is an engineer with 1 year of experience.

The east side of the state has problems attacting engineers, because it is a desert. To get to Yakima, you travel through some very depressing looking areas (sagebrush as far as the eye can see!) Lucky for them, I interviewed and accepted the job over the phone. I hope to be back in SD with an engineering job before to much time passes. Nothing against working for the WSDOT, I enjoy my job very much. Yakima is not necessarily a bad place to live either. I have had the opputurnities to see Lee Ann Womack and Sugarland concerts. And last night I saw Danielle Peck, Joe Nichols and Toby Keith in concert

A few interests/favs of mine:

1. I am a die-hard Carolina Panthers fan... and this week was a test of my loyalty! (I passed)
2. I am a huge Gaelic Storm fan. By the way, their DVD, Live In Chicago, was released earlier this week! I have also been listening to CDs by Great Big Sea andThe Clumsy Lovers lately.
3. As a Scaper (Farscape fan), I have entered into the hobby of vidding. Defined as the act of making fannish music videos by the urban dictionary.
   
4. Before vidding, a hobby of mine was collecting TV shows; the most impressive of which is my (completed) collection of the original Twilight Zone.