If the link works, here's some recent video from the local paper's website that covers the first real blasting. http://www.citizen-times.com/video/1317943861. They're apparently still saying 4 months for re-opening just two lanes....
NCSHP reports that someone went around the barricades last Friday, then had a wreck.... what a maroon!
I kinda wish they'd set up a safe spectator area to watch the process, tho'. Heck, I'd pay a few bucks to be able to watch, especially the blasting.
Jim, "Angst is lame."
'06 Tiger CX 'C Minus' on a Silverado 2500HD 4x4, 8.1 & Allison ('Loafer's Glory'); '07 Forester 2.5 ( the 'HANDBSKT'); '95 Toyota SR5 V-6 4x4 pickup, ARB locker, Bilsteins, Warn hubs & M8000, etc;
'94 968, M030 swaybars ('DOPPLER')
There was a time, in another century, when all the traffic went through there on US-25. In the 60's, I was still going through on 25, sandwiched between trucks grinding up and down the grades, winding around the switchbacks. Last time through was 1999, on a lark, in a minivan. I wouldn't want to take a RV that day, but 35 years earlier, it carried the truck traffic.
But we got used to the Interstate Highway system, milder grades, wider curves, higher speeds, bigger trucks. If we can't go back, we have longer detours. Most likely, the long detour will not take as much time as the old road, 50-60 years ago.
I went on 25/70 thru Newport around the slide to Asheville yesterday. The State Police had several big trucks pulled over. There is a bridge with a weight limit of 10,000 lbs. I don't know if they would stop RV's or not. I was traveling in a B.
I missed the start of the story on the local evening news, but apparently according to the SHP, some of the barricade-runners are saying they were just following their GPS's instructions.... Well, like, d'uh!
Jim, "If you don't talk to your cat about catnip, who will?"
Ken, I've also heard that there's a 48' limit on commercial trucks on that route. Dunno if that's correct or not, but most of the OTR big rigs I've seen of late have a 53' trailer.
Makes you wonder how anyone can drive a road that has dozens of "I 40 Westbound Closed Ahead" signs and not wonder "Does this effect me, I am on I40 West ??
This story would lead you to believe there is not any common sense.
I think some folks must believe that the GPS maps themselves come down from the satellites, and so are up-to-date automatically. And yeah, ignoring all the special highway signage for miles about the slide is unbelievably driver-absent... 'We just put gas in, follow the GPS, and steer....D'uh!'
Jim, "What you are experiencing is not a problem. It is an undocumented feature. Thank you for calling Microsoft."
Some drivers just have no sense about them or are not paying attention to the road like they should, and I think there are a few that truly believe that those signs don't apply to them.
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