3/20/2013
Reed Hollinshead
ITD Communication
208-334-8881
reed.hollinshead@itd.idaho.gov
Rock Patrol is a critical highway safety tool, especially this time of year
BOISE - Imagine driving one of Idaho’s many scenic routes, especially one bordered by a mountain or hillside. A rock the size of a washing machine or small car suddenly tumbles down, drawn by gravity and, it seems, magnetically attracted to your vehicle. A concussive meeting between vehicle and boulder looms. Disaster appears probable; damage seems unavoidable.
The Idaho Transportation Department thinks it doesn’t have to be.
Avoiding that nightmare scenario is the driving force behind ITD’s annual spring maintenance activity – Rock Patrol. It is a critical aspect of the department's goal to improve driver safety. Falling rocks are an annual event. So, too, are the questions.
The questions are familiar – people wondering why they see Idaho Transportation Department trucks with snowplows still attached driving up and down bare roads.
Rock Patrol is the answer. Behind the wheel of the plow is an ITD maintenance crewmember on the lookout for falling rocks, a genuine hazard as temperatures change and moisture (from melting snow or spring rains) loosens the soil holding them back – especially on mountainous highways.
Here are a few photos showing why Rock Patrol is important: Picture 1, Picture 2 and Picture 3 show a huge rock that fell onto Idaho 55 last spring.
“Some parts of our mountain roads have rocks fall on them virtually every morning and night,” explained Dan Bryant, southwest Idaho maintenance coordinator. “Rain, wind and temperature variations can bring them down in significant numbers.”
Crews may still encounter snow at this time of year on some of the routes, and have the plow blade in place to deal with that if it happens. But the chief benefit of the plow is that it can be used to move rocks that are four or five feet in diameter, as well as the little ones that can take out an oil pan on a car or truck, or flatten a tire on a small car, motorcycle or bicycle.
The point of performing rock patrols in plow trucks is not really about saving time, although that also occurs because a truck with an attached blade can address snowfall or rockfall immediately, without having to go back to the shop to get a plow blade attached and return to the scene.
Rather, the primary benefit is that “we can get the rock off the highway before someone hits it and is injured or damages their vehicle,” explained Bryant.
Plow trucks are used primarily on stretches of highway with a history of rockfall, where the crews are confident they will encounter rocks again.