Total Incompetence.......

[Maxt]

Anyone who tried to go north on Mcleod today in the midnapore area will know what I am talking about....
It was backed up about 3 km's and nailed down to single lane at the midnapore overpass...
I drove in from the southend this morning, no mention of any construction or any signs south of the city, so that people could bypass the repaving on say 22x, or even earlier at the deerfoot extension...
Nope, they let it pile up, at the midnapore overpass, they plunk down a "2 left hand lanes closed ahead" sign, and instantly barricade the left 2 hand lanes, and at this point you are trapped, you are past the midnapore exit lanes, with nowhere to go but wait....
So wait we did.....
In an hour and half, our forward progression was an amazing 300 feet......
So with time to kill, I decide to phone the police to find out whats the delay and whats going on, at this point there are no signs indicating anything...
People are are getting impatient as well , people are getting out of their cars and peeing on the side of the road, lots of little kids doing the pee dance behind the jackets help up by their parents...
My phone call to the cops:
I explain how long I have been sitting here, how there is no signage, people are going nuts, and now traffic is totally locked..
CPS: "Sorry, but thats not our concern"
Me " At least if you had someone down here guiding the lane merge, you have 2 left lanes and right hand merge lane all converging on the traffic left in the right hand lane, its mayhem, nothings moving, people are getting out of hand"..
CPS: everyone is responsible for their actions , if someone does something they will be charged,
ME" should you not be down here trying to control the situation instead of giving me excuses as to why you don't want to deal with it, and perform the service you are paid to do?"
CPS" Its not our problem call roads" click........

So I call Roads....
I explain the situation to them, and if they are doing something they should have some traffic control, and some signs before the construction so people can detour...
Roads " ummm, call the police, we aren't doing anything out there today, must be an accident"....
Me " I called police, after demonstrating they are pretty much completely useless, they suggested I call you.."
Roads" Umm, call signs, wait I'll transfer you"....
Me" umm ok"...

So "signs" answers, I explain whats going on
Signs" well read the signs, they should tell you what they are doing"..
Me "there are no signs just 4000 cars sitting still, and 2 left hand lanes closed signs"..
Signs" the computer shows no congestion, everything shows all clear and moving smoothly"
Me" you got to be fucking kidding me.."
Signs" yup, and nothing is scheduled on Mcleod north, umm, I will tell my supervisor of what you say but there is no problems showing"....

So we sit, then finally I get far enough forward to get off at bannister road, we drive up far enoughto see a large mobile digital sign that says
"Mcleod trail closed down to one lane for 1.5 km's feb 28 for repaving"

This sign is halfway through the lane closure about 1 km after the lane closure and now about 3 km's downstream from the end of the traffic jam.....
Total fucking imcompetence, I was so absolutely pissed about this, not one city department knew what the hell was going on, and really not one of them gave a flying fuck.... Monday I am gonna make some phone calls, I probably won't get very far, but I am going to bombard those fuckers with phone calls and emails till someone catches shit for it, we have no minds like Diane Colly Urqhart worrying about idling cars and proposing bylaws about it , meanwhile the city's lack of collective intelligence creates a situation for 4000+ cars idling........

[ehos]

Good luck man!

Public service is really an oxymoron right? More like 'Man I have this sweet city job, NO way to get fired, and I can be a lazy ass all day long for all time long!'

But that would be too long, so they just call it 'Public Service' to piss us off.

All government jobs should be contract. That would be fun.

[BlackArcher101]

That's pretty shitty. I really don't know how the city can get away with this. They do it all the time.

When I worked highways with Volker Stevin, we had to have plans on how to handle traffic. We had to follow strict regulations for everything imaginable from the government. Seems the city can do whatever they want.

For example, we would have put up signs warning of the closer/construction a week in advance so people can plan ahead. Then during construction, warning signs would have been placed ahead and 1 lane would be closed gradually at a time. Not 2. And would have had flagman at each lane closure. Complete BS. I hate the city.

[cappachihngo]

ya, public service is blocking road and creating chaos everywhere... haha

[CalgarySS]

I feel your pain Max. I was in the Silver Jetta 1.8T parked somewhere near you.

[88CRX]

they've had that mobile sign up for a few weeks now.

[Maxt]

That doesn't help people that haven't driven that road for the last few weeks though does it, people coming in from out of town have no idea it was there...If its been there for weeks, how come no one at the city knew it was scheduled, there was 2 ambulances trapped in that mess, obviously they knew nothing either....
With the volumes of traffic Mcleod sees, they should have at the very least, had police there doing some sort of traffic control, and much better signage, on top of that , I listen to talk radio with traffic updates religiously, and never heard mention of it on there, Mcleod is not exactly a seldom used wagon track...
Calgary SS, I dunno about you, but I lost all remaining confidence in public service at that point....max

[Seanith]

Wow what a gong show. Its a good thing I wasn't doing any driving yesterday.

[ICEBERG]

What is this city coming to?

[sxtasy]

Maxt, its good that you are trying to get to the bottom of this. Good luck with it all, so funny how no one can take any responsibility for this type of shit happening.

[rx7_turbo2]

Originally posted by Maxt

Calgary SS, I dunno about you, but I lost all remaining confidence in public service at that point....max

Oh be honest, you lost the confidence along time ago.

[nickyh]

Originally posted by CalgarySS
I feel your pain Max. I was in the Silver Jetta 1.8T parked somewhere near you.

Yeah - i was the blue Jetta 1.8T considering jumping over the grass median... pity my ground clearance did not allow it.