Extreme Temperature Diary-February 6, 2018/ Future Infrastructure Investment…Asked Questions (Part 1)

DTuesday February 6th… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing post will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials)😊. Here is today’s climate change related topic:

Future Infrastructure Investment…Questions To Be Asked

Looking back through my “Diary” on December 26th, 2017 I touched on “smart asphalt” infrastructure improvements. Throughout 2018 the powers that be will be proposing around 1 trillion dollars to repair and upgrade the United States appalling state of roads, airports, bridges, and yes levees and other coastal structures to protect what has been built on our shores. Will this money be well sent if any project is approved? Let’s come up with some questions that need to be asked in association with what we know is coming…climate change.

  1. To start, how should we be rebuilding our prior fossil fuel asphalt paved roads? For this question I’m going to repost the material I presented on 12/26/17:

Smart Asphalt

Segueing from my last post on banning the internal combustion engine,  there is a lot more that can be done to improve transportation even if there is no quick switch to all electrics. Our nation will be investing a lot on infrastructure upgrades soon. I wish that the powers that be would consider upgrading roads to new technology that conserves energy by greatly improving optimization in the flow of traffic.

While driving all of us note intersections that are clogged with stop and go traffic in which stop lights are very slow to turn green. Yep, yours truly has uttered a few choice four letter words being frustrated at these.😉 We all know that cars get more miles per gallon in the country than in the city because automobiles waste a lot of energy while in slow stop and go traffic. Now there is a new method for monitoring traffic via buried fiber optic cables within “smart asphalt.”  This article explains what is involved in the new process:

https://asphaltplus.com/2017-asphalt-industry-predictions-adivce/

From the article:

smart road

Investing $15 million, Ohio is planning on installing advanced highway technologies following a 35 – mile stretch of U.S. Route 33 along the Smart Mobility Corridor.

The 35 – mile, four lane stretch of road with limited access will be equipped with high-capacity fiber optic cables that will:

  • Instantly link researchers and traffic monitors with data from sensors that are located along the road.
  • Allow premier automotive testing, research and manufacturing facilities to work on highways that carry 50,000 vehicles per day and test the smart technology.
  • Calculate frequent and accurate traffic counts.
  • Monitor weather and surface conditions.
  • Help find incident management improvements.

 Computerized monitored traffic lights can be programmed to allow much better flow of traffic. Those considering any investment in infrastructure will want to take a close look at smart roads. Also, let’s choose state of the art paving material that resists break down, thus keeping the need for repaving at a minimum and therefore being more environmentally friendly. Better yet, let’s pave roads consisting of solar cells…That’s right, solar cells. China is once again eating besting the U.S. when it comes to infrastructure:

2) Next, if roads are improved what about rails? Certainly environmentalists frown on automobile transportation citing mass transportation as better on just about every front, in using carbon pollution. This is an older but good article giving the pros and cons of high rail: 

Quoting from the article: 

Environmental impact

“While the money behind high-speed trains is far from guaranteed, the positive environmental effects of this form of transportation are evident. The most important thing for trains to become environmentally friendly is to reach a critical mass of riders. That number is different for every line, but if enough regular riders can be attracted, then the carbon emissions caused by the construction of the line can be completely offset.

Discovering that “sweet spot” of riders needed to offset environmental damage can be the hard part. The U.S. is. estimated to need 10 million annual riders to make a positive impact if high-speed lines were ever constructed. Some planners say that could easily be attained, but who knows for certain?

While the environmental effects are quantifiable, some researchers say that marketing a high-speed line as a solution to global warming would be wrong, as time savings and less traffic are the main benefits.”

Pessimistically speaking and knowing human nature, that one trillion in investment will probably go towards just replacing old, 20th century transportation technology with new versions of 20th century technology…more fossil fuel based repaving and widening of old roads instead of building new rail. Then there are the matters of corruption and a “quick fixes”  using the cheapest, easiest methods for say bridge repair. It is so incredibly hard for humans to sacrifice for future generations, but those in charge should wrack their brains for solutions and be willing to legislate higher taxes or tolls to keep civilization rolling along. For more raised transportation questions to Team Trump see this new article: https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060072725

 I will go into more aspects of  the climate change transportation issue tomorrow. 

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

I’ll post ET information for 2/6/18 as I see it later today. Here is what has been issued by NWS offices so far:

The Climate Guy

 

 


 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *