[Vision2020] The road leading to Alberta oil sands gets bumpy | Crosscut.com

[Kenneth Marcy]

On Tuesday, June 21, 2011 04:57:01 PM Brett Haverstick wrote:
> The lights were measured and apparently they do not need to be raised.

Yes, it is true that the lights are at the correct height to function 
correctly as the traffic control devices they were designed to be, and to 
continue to accomplish that function the lights do not need to be changed.

The more trenchant questions are whether the loads have been measured and do 
the loads need to be lowered in order to not interfere with the operations of 
the traffic control lights. Those lights are now at heights which yield correct 
viewing angles for all vehicle drivers. Adjusting the light heights just for 
the megaloads would render the lights sub-optimally useful for all the other 
drivers using the roads at those locations. So, if anything needs to be 
adjusted, it should be the heights of the megaloads, not the heights of the 
lights.

I'd like to think you're correct that there won't be any light-damaging 
interactions between the lights and the loads. However, to express that idea 
from the point of view that the loads are so important that, were they taller, 
all the lights would have to have been raised does raise an eyebrow.


Ken