3/10/2014
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. Rocks begin tumbling down and a concussive meeting looms.
The Idaho Transportation Department would like to intervene.
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, and the answer to why people may see ITD trucks with snowplows still attached driving up and down bare roads.
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 soil holding them back – especially on mountainous highways.
Crews may still encounter snow at this time of year on some 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
Dan Bryant, southwest Idaho
maintenance coordinator.
“Some parts of our mountain roads have rocks fall on them virtually every morning and night,” Bryant added. “Rain, wind and temperature variations can bring them down in significant numbers.”
Plow trucks are used primarily on stretches of
highway with a history of rockfall, where crews are confident they
will encounter rocks again. Temperatures plummet at daybreak and sunset each day in the spring,
creating a volatile situation for rocks poised precariously on
hillsides.
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 a few years ago.
Click here for the ITD Rock Patrol logo.
