Infrastructure issues

[Crazyraceguy]

I walked down the sidewalk of the old shop, going out toward to main road, to get a close look at the new construction, across the way. They started with the roads/curbs as soon as the corn was pulled off. From what I can see so far, it looks to be residential, but it's early, maybe not.
The point of the post however, is on the other side, which is all commercial. This area was all wide-open fields 10 years ago or so. A local builder bought a huge parcel of it and has been developing slowly. Somewhere early on, someone screwed up. I don't know which is wrong, but the fire hydrants do not run parallel to the road. That's bad enough, but then complications just add up.
I would imagine that there are city regulations that are driving part of this, but it just looks silly.
You can see it from the beginning, but it just keeps getting worse. These hydrants are no more than a few hundred feet apart. You can see the next one as you pass the other. Like I said, it's all commercial/industrial, so minimal foot traffic, but still?
Things like this bother me and others wonder why it does..... just the difference in people I guess.
I realize it would be way too costly to repair but come on.

 

[luvmytoolz]

It's almost like the responsible council departments don't have good communication! ;-)

But someone's definitely stuffed up, that hydrants almost, but not quite dead centre of the path by the look.

 

[mino]

Well .. over here it is common for new areas to have lighting poles in the middle of the ... wait for it .. an official cycling path.

The reason is simple. 'Car dweller' caste of officials do not see the pedestrian /or a cyclist or a even a biker/ as "people" thus when a conflict of regulations/needs comes, they are just ignored. Consciously and on purpose.

That is also why most European cities seem so "pedestrian-friendly" to US folks .. it is not because Europe is "more civilised" or anything like that per se.

Those cities were built at a time every city official /bar the highest/ casually walked as a way to move around. Cross over to a "modern" district of European town and the newer the area the more ignorant/hostile the infrastructure is to anything but a car. This starts with lights and crossings and ends with poles in the middle of sidewalks, if sidewalks are even includes (!). Those with decision powers just do not care, at best, actively create hostile spaces, at worst.

 

[peter halle]

It was cheaper to curve the sidewalk than to alter the water supply to the hydrant, and my guess is that the hydrant was there long before they thought a sidewalk would ever be put in. Odd to see that hydrant in those colors for me. Here they are high visibility and even reflective paint to make them easier to find - although that one has nothing around it. - yet.

Here we are seeing traffic roundabouts installed in areas where there are numerous traffic accidents and delays at intersections. It is claimed that it is safer, cheaper, and cheaper / easier to maintain than traffic signals. In order to come up the money it is common to get grants from various government entities. There must be a checklist of items to be included to qualify, just like when a developer creates a new neighborhood. Streetlights and sidewalks must be on that checklist, because you find these being installed in areas that were rural not that many years ago and there isn't another sidewalk or streetlight for miles. Sidewalks to nowhere is common here now, but who knows, that might change in fifty years and the "forward thinking" of today will be hailed as a success.

Peter

 

[jeffinsgf]

..., These hydrants are no more than a few hundred feet apart. You can see the next one as you pass the other. ...

This must be the new thing in Ohio. A couple of well-travelled rural roads in the Cleveland south suburbs have been torn up since March installing fire hydrants that I swear are no more than 100 feet apart. This in areas that show no sign of development. Fire hydrants for corn and soybean fields. Now maybe the land has been sold and will be developed, but those hydrants are closer together than any in the adjacent suburbs.

My assessment is some county commissioner's nephew makes fire hydrants.

 

[peter halle]

This must be the new thing in Ohio. A couple of well-travelled rural roads in the Cleveland south suburbs have been torn up since March installing fire hydrants that I swear are no more than 100 feet apart. This in areas that show no sign of development. Fire hydrants for corn and soybean fields. Now maybe the land has been sold and will be developed, but those hydrants are closer together than any in the adjacent suburbs.

My assessment is some county commissioner's nephew makes fire hydrants.

...or the hydrants are being placed on some sort of calculation based on anticipated residency or usage at the worst case scenario (most needed). I know here the water and sewer lines are installed in most cases in paths of anticipation of growth.

So on one side of the street / road you have people happily living with wells and septic tank systems decades old and on the other side the non-growing farm was sold and is being developed so they have water. sewer, and irrigated lawns.

Peter

 

[jeffinsgf]

If you're right, Peter, they're going to be building to a density not currently normal in the area.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

These three hydrants are fairly close to each other, mostly because of the spacing of the businesses. There is a much larger gap between the 2nd and 3rd, because of an empty lot between them. There is no sidewalk there either. As far as that goes, spacing between can be easily altered, the line is down there after all. It's the parallelism to the road, that bothers me. I didn't measure it, but I assume the sidewalk itself is regulated, in relation to the road. Otherwise, it could have been moved over enough to eliminate the need for the bend around.

The color of the hydrants used to be strictly yellow......all of them. At some point, there must have been some loosening or likely localizing of the regulations. In some places they are orange. Others are white, with red or black caps. However, I have never seen a painted one on a building. Those all seem to be bronze.

Firetrucks all used to be the same red too. Then there were some that are a bright neon chartreuse. That didn't last long though. I haven't seen one, in a while.

@mino we have a lot of bike lane issues around here too. There are many "conflict" points, where the lanes cross each other in a poorly though out way. Others have sign posts or even poles in the way. We have a fairly decent network of bike-only paths, but all of them are accessible by cars. The rationale is that the police might need to access them, but it is mostly parks department vehicles. I have seen dozens of small side-by-side utility trucks, usually cleaning, trimming, etc. Once in a while a larger truck, for pruning trees. The worst I ever came across was indeed a police car. It was moving way too fast around a blind curve. Luckily for me, I was on the "correct" bike for the encounter. Most of my bikes are too slack in the steering, to divert so quickly. I have been hit (or turned in front of) 4 times, since I got back into road riding, in 2015. To be fair, that is well over 12,000 miles, but drivers just don't care.
If I had a dollar for every time someone yelled "get in the sidewalk", I could have retired years earlier. Where I live, that is 100 % against the law. Anyone over 18 is not allowed on the sidewalk, ever.
Nothing infuriates them more, than the retort "Side walks are for walking"

 

[Mini Me]

It's almost like the responsible council departments don't have good communication! ;-)

But someone's definitely stuffed up, that hydrants almost, but not quite dead centre of the path by the look.

Our house is on a battle axe block, the house is connected to the street by the driveway that runs between other houses and itis part of the land title so our access can't be blocked by anyone else. We bought the house about 3 years after it was built and to our surprise we found that the driveway had been constructed out of position between the other houses but no one had done anything about it and had no wish to do so. The reason this had happened was the power company had put a pole in the centre of the drive on the street so communication obviously was not great when the planning was done.

 

[Packard]

The civil engineer who laid out the sidewalk on a large piece of paper, never made a site inspection and was not aware of the hydrants. The setback for the hydrants varied, one very near the road and the zig zag version further away.

The civil engineer who laid out the sewer districts where my house is, never checked the topography. And our sewer district (not yet connected) is at the summit of a steep hill, with half the houses on one side of the hill and half on the other. So hook up requires two mains and will cost twice as much as it should.

This roadway striping looks like a mistake but was actually made intentionally. The zig zag lines are an indication of a mostly hidden stop sign ahead. Clever and a better solution than the additional sign that says “stop sign ahead”.

 

[leakyroof]

I think Chicago is stuck on RED for our Hydrants. Some Local Suburbs put a flexible flag mount on their hydrants, think of a CB antenna base with a spring in it. The flag above sticks out when the snow gets deep enough to bury the Hydrant since it's several feet above the height of the Hydrant.

As for road structuring, Bicycle Paths are now being built everywhere in Chicago, with Commercial Parking Spots for Businesses taking a huge hit, as they're wiped out to make those Bike Paths. We'll see how all this plays out in a deep snow this Winter, where it's all buried until pedestrians 'rediscover' all those concrete curbs and lanes that they can't see....
Along with Snow Plows and Drivers. Which, means more hand shoveling since no City Snow Plow can work the bike paths, or all the weird cut-outs that are going along with the Bike Paths, walkways, and short 3 to 4 car carved out parking spots , that are like little islands along side normal traffic lanes, but concreted way from those Bike Paths with concrete curbs.
Ice storm will be even worse....
And finally, there's the issue of drainage. Melting Snow and Ice don't always play by the rules, all of this will be interesting to watch over the coming months.

 

[Packard]

According to local ordinance, the home owner is responsible for clearing the snow around a fire hydrant on their property. I have yet to see that done. The fire department drives around with a crew after deep snow falls and digs the hydrants out. (Volunteer fire departments here. Luckily, no hydrant on my property.

 

[Cheese]

According to our local ordinance the property owner is also responsible for clearing the snow on the sidewalks that abut his/her property...

So, reality dictates if they won't shovel their own sidewalk they'll certainly not dig out a hydrant.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

And finally, there's the issue of drainage. Melting Snow and Ice don't always play by the rules, all of this will be interesting to watch over the coming months.

You guys don't have gravity in Chicago?

According to our local ordinance the property owner is also responsible for clearing the snow on the sidewalks that abut his/her property...

So, reality dictates if they won't shovel their own sidewalk they'll certainly not dig out a hydrant.

It's the same here, as far as the sidewalks. Clearing it is hit or miss, some are really good about it, others .....
The hydrants are more likely to be buried by plows than actual falling snow, but once in a while, we get more than usual.

 

[Mini Me]

As an ex voluntary firey in our town I have always wondered about hydrants as we don't have them in Oz because we don't get snow apart from a few isolated areas. I have never seen snow and have no desire to and you guys are welcome to enjoy it. The only thing I would like to do and can't is Ice Sailing on frozen lakes.

 

[Cheese]

As an ex voluntary firey in our town I have always wondered about hydrants as we don't have them in Oz because we don't get snow apart from a few isolated areas. I have never seen snow and have no desire to and you guys are welcome to enjoy it. The only thing I would like to do and can't is Ice Sailing on frozen lakes.

Well then you need snow...

 

[Mini Me]

Well then you need snow...

Yep! so it won't happen.

 

[Packard]

As an ex voluntary firey in our town I have always wondered about hydrants as we don't have them in Oz because we don't get snow apart from a few isolated areas. I have never seen snow and have no desire to and you guys are welcome to enjoy it. The only thing I would like to do and can't is Ice Sailing on frozen lakes.

In college, I had a buddy in my photography class that went ice sailing (Syracuse in the winter). He set up his camera to photograph himself. The black and white photo showed a bunch of black streaks on his face. He explained that the ice crystals that the front blade kicked up would hit him at speed and cause minute cuts. The ice would melt, and the bleeding would stop almost immediately. It was, apparently almost painless, and required no after-care, so he never wore a face shield.

Note: Red reads as black on black and white film.