Mequon Clog: The Blog of the Clog!

Through inaction, the city is complicit in this matter. For not ensuring the service and protection of the Mequon community, the city is complicit. For not posting officers on Mequon Road and Port at night time to protect workers and Mequon citizens, the police, and thus the City have made a very clear statement to the voting and tax paying public.

So you turned left, and intended to cross a closed lane. Were there cones indicating that there was an open path, or did you just drive through a gap in the barrels?

Seems to me there are a lot of people making illegal turns across closed lanes in places that they shouldn't be. Just because the gap between barrels is large enough to fit a car through doesn't me it's a legal move.

Most of the time you might get away with this move. You won't hit anything, and you won't get caught and given a ticket. But just because you do it so often with no consequences, doesn't mean that you get to blame someone else when fate finally catches up to you.

The question becomes are you just not paying attention, or are you just ignorant of how you're supposed to react to the construction zone? Like I said, just because you can fit between the barrels doesn't mean it's a legal move.

If an open path across a closed lane at an intersection or driveway isn't explicitly marked as being open, the rule is that it's closed. And somehow I doubt that they marked an open crossing at the place you decided to cross the closed lane. (And yes, you should have know it was closed. If it wasn't closed, there would have been traffic using the lane.

As for the use of rebar, that's not a workmanship issue. That's a design issue. Don't they teach that to engineers anymore?

Rusty, I'm not sure if you are representing the company or the DOT here, but this response is obviously toting some company-like line. This project does not post "open paths". Only recently did I finally see an arrow sign for moving traffic from one lane to the next -- on a road that appears to change driving lanes lately for what seems to be the fun of watching the confusion.

Your perspective is that the company is 100% right and that they have made absolutely no mistakes. A 3+ mile project isn't going to make even one mistake? If the answer is yes that is possible, then it is obvious that there can be even more than one. And there are plenty. Covering for these mistakes by calling the drivers ignorant and stupid doesn't fly.

The issue here was not inattentiveness but lack of markings. Period.

"For not posting officers on Mequon Road and Port at night time to protect workers"
-You want to pay the overtime bill for the officers to stand and do nothing, the companies have flag people to direct traffic, its not a police matter. The city doesnt have enough police to waste personal like that. Their third shift only has 3 cops for 50 sq miles.

"Why aren't the police ticketing the company for this one?!!!"
-What ticket should be issued? I dont think there's any ticket like that?

"They had also sprinkled dry cement on the fresh surface that made the dark concrete look white and dry. I think this was meant as part of the trap."
-Do you know how dumb that sounds? It could have been dust that settled on top, it could have been the top layer drying. Because the cement company wants people to drive throught their work.

Mike, your right, it shouldn't be a ticket, but large fines and reductions in the project payments.

Regarding the sprinkled cement comment, take note of what is obviously frustrated sarcasm. Like your statement that the cement company wants people to drive through their work. Then again, they get paid more if this happens. Something to think about.

Reply to Rusty from original poster
Rusty Must need a course in remedial reading since he fails to comprehend my posting of the events in September. To recount, there were no barrels, cones, tape or anything to indicate the path to Parkview Dr was closed. I had been waiting in the meridian of the intersection for over three minutes because of the continuos traffic going west. When a car did stop to let me go through, all I could see in my headlights was white colored concrete between me and the black top of Parkview Dr. After going into the concrete and getting out of the car I could see the white cement was in arcs on the surface most likely meant to soak up the excess water and speed the surface solidification. It was not dust.

The workmen that were preparing the next pore at the approach to the bridge said that the concrete was pored less than 10 minutes ago and I still had time to flush it off in a car wash. To bad none were open by the time they pulled me out. Obviously they had forgotten to immediately put up any barricade, barrels or cones in the meridian to indicate were to go. There wasn't a single barrel, cone or barricade in the entire width of the meridian passage to Parkview Dr. and I had been waiting there long enough to see them if they had existed.

Rusty's statement regarding lack of proper rebars, "That's a design issue. Don't they teach that to engineers anymore?" I can't imagine the specs don't call for adequate rebars. After my time in the military before and during Vietnam, I have been involved in NRC approved upgrades for nuclear power plants in the US and Canada. Specifically the calculation of the stresses in the containment buildings around the reactors and the piping for cooling so that they can withstand a Richtor-Scale 5 vibration caused by an earthquake, explosion or impact from a missile or plane. Most likely I have been doing calculations on concrete stress longer than Rusty has been alive.