Blizzard 2015 Boston

[leonz]

As mentioned before, the population density of Hokkaido is about 2% that of Boston. Metro Boston has a population of 4.5 million.

The city is already melting 6,000 tons of snow a day with portable melters that can be moved near the site. I don't think there's any interest in digging any pits when we don't usually get seven feet of snow in a month with no melting.

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The snow melting pits are in several prefectures and work well,
why not copy them for Boston?

A snow melting pit would take up little room as the pit itself is
narrow very deep and long to allow four or five trucks wide to
dump at one time.

For that matter a small wheel loader with a plow blade could be used
to push dumped snow into the receiving pit to reduce any chance of
the haulage truck causing any damage to the building and this would
allow large dump trailers to haul snow to a snow melting pit site with
speed as the snow would just be dumped and pushed into the melting
pit later.

A small anthracite coal stoker boiler consumes a small amount of coal
per hour and can heat huge amounts of water to 180 degrees quickly.


A melt pit that is 20 feet wide 80 feet long and 40 feet deep would hold

80 by 40 by 20=64,000 thousand cubic feet of water times 6.84251
which is the number of gallons of water that occupies a cubic foot
equals 437,921 gallons of heated water in total volume(rounded higher).

So if the pit was filled to seventy percent of its volume with hot water it
would have 306,545 gallons (rounded higher) of hot water for melting it would
continue melt the snow and ice into liquid that would eventually reach the scupper
drains and flow to Deere Island eventually from the storage basins.

Saying that The melt water is heated to 180 degrees on a continuous basis and becomes
the heat source to aid in melting more snow and ice and the water temperature could be
increased to two hundred degrees to increase the heat and melting power available to
reduce the snow to liquid and the melt pit would also be evaporating the melt water as a
steam vapor at the same time.

A battery of coal stokers would provide all the hot water needed to melt the snow at all hours.

The coal bins of the stokers would have to be filled and the boilers would have a closed loop
water system that could be fed from a pressure tank that receives city water.

The 300,000 plus gallons of heated water that would be in the pit is huge energy source that could be counted
on to do the work quickly as it is done on Hokkaido Island. The snow would melt quickly and would add to the thermal mass available to melt the snow that is being dumped as soon as the other truck pulls out. I am sorry I do not have a
link to the Youtube video that I viewed showing how quickly they were dumping and melting the snow.

Piping the 8 plus boilers in series would provide a huge amount of hot water.

The use of a Victaulic piping system would be quick and easy to repair if a leak was found as the pit could be pumped out quickly and the pipe gasket repaired quickly using a steel floating work platform that would be lowered into the pit.

Compressed air would be used to find the leak quickly and the plan of repair could be done quickly.

The one inch Victaulic pipe could be used in long pipe runs with a single eighty foot joint connecting to the end wall pipe joints providing a 200 foot loop of pipe that would have 160-180 degree water running through it

So for example 38 pipe runs with the pipe running in ladder runs would have 7,600 feet of one inch pipe that would or could be split amoung the eight boilers with each boiler heating 950 feet of pipe fully exposed to the snow and melt water

 

[Garandman]

One plow driver's take on doing his job in Boston. Warning: language not for delicate ears -
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=919734934737438&fref=nf

That video is from 2013, it's been posted on at least 50 sites every time it snows, there are at least a dozen copies on Youtube alone, the driver was not in Boston, and he was identified and fired.

LOWELL, Mass. —A private contractor paid to plow Massachusetts streets has been fired after he recorded himself on video joking about burying cars during the blizzard earlier this month. Mark Hussey, who goes by the name Dogg, was plowing in Lowell on Feb. 10 [2013] when he videotaped himself pushing snow banks back. He was fired from his job Friday after the video went viral. “My boss fired me from the best job I ever had in 30 years driving a truck,” Hussey said. “It was a stupid two-minute video.” Hussey said he was not doing anything other than opening the streets and making light of the situation. “This morning I apologized to the city manager, but it was too late,” he said. “That’s good. He deserves it,” said Mike Langlois, who claims Hussey plowed in his vehicle.

Does anyone know if the city of Boston is using snowblowers to clean the streets? Everything I've seen is plows and not very big ones at that to move the snow. Here the cities blow the snow directly into semi trucks or dump trucks and haul it out to designated dumping areas.

Most snow piles are removed with front end loaders or skid steers or both and put in trucks. NY and NJ have loaned Boston loaders as Boston has loaned them in the past.

The technique of plowing snow into the center of the street and loading it into trucks with a large snow thrower is used but only a few thoroughfares lend themselves to it. Usually the big snow throwers are used to clear breakdown lanes on highways, parkways and the like where the snow can be blasted into the woods, since they don't have to enter a travel lane to do so. I saw one of the big Oshkosh machines on Rt 128 last week.

I haven't seen any. - many, many more words.

Your profile says you live in RI, 60+ miles from Boston. When was the last time you actually set foot in Boston?

Wow, what place and people. HS

It's awful, you wouldn't want to come here, ever. Even to troll.

 

[Garandman]

=Immense wall of text

If this is such a great idea, why don't they do it where you live - or anywhere else in North America, or Europe?

Saw a Weather Channel truck at Murphy Rink (South Boston) this morning and asked the guy, "Do you know something I don't know?" And he said, "No, it's the usual - It's going to snow. It's snowing. It snowed." [laugh]

 

[IslandTractor]

Your profile says you live in RI, 60+ miles from Boston. When was the last time you actually set foot in Boston?

My profile reflect where my tractor lives. My home is a northern suburb of Boston. I go to Boston four or five days a week. Was there and back twice today (Downtown, Rox, JP, Brookline, Longwood, Storrow and back on 93).

 

[tractchores]

On the snowmelting pits - its key to remember that Boston is mostly built on Fill, a 40' deep pit is probably 30' or more under water....

I've seen a fair number of blowers loading trucks. It works on in some areas, on narrow streets the truck can be in front of the blower VS on the side. The issue is that you can't do this during the storm (too slow), so it has to be done afterwards. Since Boston has such narrow streets, usually lined with cars the snow is pushed onto the sides and then post storm its very delicate work to gather up the snow because of cars, trees, parking meters etc. Hate to see what it'll be like after this storm, yesterday I amost killed myself walking a few blocks between the ice, huge banks and difficult parking.

 

[leonz]

The Island of Hokkaido lies in an area of immense wet weather events
and as result of the northern seas surrounding it is subject to snows with heavy
moisture content that create huge snowfall events on a daily basis
(meaning several feet overnight)on most of the islands inhabited areas
and the smaller cities have no where to put the snow so many snow
melting pits are used.

Even a single snow storm would be worth the investment.

When the Boston/Massachusetts Bureaucrats ask college engineering professors and
civil engineers "How do we solve our snow problem many have said "I don't know"
or "simply use rock salt"


I have also suggested same to the mayors office and it probably ended up in the
in the deleted dust bin of history.

Better yet they could steam distill the melt water and sell it so.............................

It takes brilliant engineers to design things and an amateur to destroy them as
was said about the Titanic.

You only have to look out in the harbor to see Deer Island and the three lives it took to
solve a sewage problem that they "ALL" could have solved three years before the deaths of the
two divers that was described in great detail in the book "Trapped Beneath The Sea" by Neil Swidey.
instead of passing the buck down the road to the next administration of the Bay State Or Boston itself.

Three men died needlessly because of cost cutting/shoddy work and jury rigged diving equipment and their families are the ones left behind to look at a couple of memorial plaques on Deer Island.

I hope this answers your questions.

 

[Garandman]

The Island of Hokkaido lies in an area of immense wet weather events
and as result of the northern seas surrounding it is subject to snows with heavy
moisture content that create huge snowfall events on a daily basis
(meaning several feet overnight)on most of the islands inhabited areas
and the smaller cities have no where to put the snow so many snow
melting pits are used.

Even a single snow storm would be worth the investment.

When the Boston/Massachusetts Bureaucrats ask college engineering professors and
civil engineers "How do we solve our snow problem many have said "I don't know"
or "simply use rock salt"


I have also suggested same to the mayors office and it probably ended up in the
in the deleted dust bin of history.

Better yet they could steam distill the melt water and sell it so.............................

It takes brilliant engineers to design things and an amateur to destroy them as
was said about the Titanic.

You only have to look out in the harbor to see Deer Island and the three lives it took to
solve a sewage problem that they "ALL" could have solved three years before the deaths of the
two divers that was described in great detail in the book "Trapped Beneath The Sea" by Neil Swidey.
instead of passing the buck down the road to the next administration of the Bay State Or Boston itself.

Three men died needlessly because of cost cutting/shoddy work and jury rigged diving equipment and their families are the ones left behind to look at a couple of memorial plaques on Deer Island.

I hope this answers your questions.

No, but since you continue to belabor the point, I asked why, if this was a workable idea, not a single city in North America or Europe is doing it?

Mayor Walsh has already made many improvements to the snow removal process compared to the response under Menino. The local park sidewalks have been cleared within a day or two of each storm (with a sidewalk-width snow thrower): they were never cleared under Menino.. The city has mobilized city trucks, contractors, National Guardsmen and borrowed crews from NY and NJ. Coupled with the timing of this storm (late Saturday night and Sunday) I think we'll get through this one without too much trouble.

 

[leonz]

AS I said,

"the simple fact is that Hokkaido and the small towns and cities there
measure there snow fall in feet or Meters in one day during the winter season".

And municipalities are loath to spend money period, Do not think for a minute
that they are not going to pay daily rent on these snow melters(they are not loaned)
plus the amount of money they have spent on labor and the diesel fuel to power these machines
and the front end loaders and the dump trucks owned by contractors that haul
the snow to be dumped in them.


And for the same reasons BNSF and UP did not scrap their 100 year old
rotary snow plows and by new self propelled snow clearer's from Germany.
"WE" do not get that much snow to quote UNION PACIFIC and BNSF-
backwards thinking when the storms on the plains come to visit and
railroads hate to spend money unless they absolutely have to just
like municipalities.

The City of Boston AND New York Cities physical locations are made worse by
the moisture brought inland from coastal storms much like those on the Island of
Hokkaido.

Its not my fault people dont think ahead to times like these and I can only look
back in disgust when I remember all the hundreds of thousands of tons of municipal
garbage that was dumped in the open ocean and the millions of gallons of sewage sludge
that was dumped off New York City and Bostons water pollution mess.

 

[JJZ 109]

That video is from 2013, it's been posted on at least 50 sites every time it snows, there are at least a dozen copies on Youtube alone, the driver was not in Boston, and he was identified and fired.

Isn't it that way with most everything on the internet? I'm sure you've posted some tidbit of knowledge along the way that others may have seen many times before. Regardless of what you posted, many other folks hadn't seen it and appear to have gotten a little enjoyment out of it.

 

[Garandman]

3.5" of snow last night and it's really coming down right now so another foot total seems likely.

Another convoluted post something something snow pits

So that we can focus on Blizzard Boston 2015, I've made you your very own thread!

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/snow-removal/331188-how-they-get-rid-snow.html

 

[Garandman]

SNE snowfall totals through 7:19am
National Weather Service Text Product Display

My neighborhood received 8.7" while other parts of Boston reported 3.5 to over 10". Ipswich MA, a coastal town on Cape Ann N of Boston, got 20". Forecast is for 7-11" more today.

 

[dave1949]

One plow driver's take on doing his job in Boston. Warning: language not for delicate ears -
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=919734934737438&fref=nf

Too bad he got fired. I think he was just having some fun with the commentary. The plowing, that's just the reality of the situation in a city. I would hate to live where I have no off-street parking. Just a giant PITA.

The nearby small town has a permanent winter overnight parking ban on all public streets that starts in November and ends in April or May. That's not so easy to do in larger, denser cities.

 

[Garandman]

dave1949, 9 out of 10 people realized he was probably just having a little fun in what is usually a pretty boring job punctuated with occasional moments of terror, mechanical breakdowns and all the other crazy things you see at 3am.

But once the video went viral - as witness by the fact that it's two years old and been rehosted 100 times - if only one out of the one of the ten complained, that's still a lot. But I bet he has another job!

In Boston they ban parking on all the "Snow Arteries" and that also triggers special parking rates at city-owned facilities, usually a dollar a day for a garage and free in lots.

We're up to the third most snow in modern Boston history (records kept since 1891) and may get to 2nd by this afternoon - 95+.

Just about up to the windows of the shed.

 

[IslandTractor]

Still snowing pretty hard here ten miles north of Boston. We got about a foot overnight. Current forecast is total of 18-24.

My daughter had a hockey tournament game scheduled for this morning and as it hadn't been cancelled as of 7am I was out snow blowing and shoveling in the thick of it before dawn. Team ethos, gotta show up. We actually drove fifteen miles following closely behind a phalanx of big plow trucks (what is the proper collective noun for a group of snowplows? A blizzard of plows? A shovelful of plows? A scraper of plows?) along 95 until, within a mile of the rink, we got a call telling us the game was postponed until this afternoon. Great.

Had to turn around and drive home in same conditions. Followed a state trooper at 20-30 mph back up 95. Wouldn't have gone faster anyways but I followed the old adage about never passing a trooper on the highway. One guy in a pickup tried to pass me until he saw the trooper ahead. Amazing thing is that he was freaking texting!!! as he drove past me.

Plows had cleared all but a few inches from the road surface on 95 so that wasn't a problem but visibility was poor, maybe 200 yards. Felt bad for the trooper as he didn't have anyone to follow. Luckily the snow banks were so high that you could judge the left, right and middle travel lane positions by looking sideways. I'm sure that was what the trooper was doing. Got home to see that the local plows had refilled our driveway entrance but I just blasted through as the snow is light.

All cosy at home now doing an inventory of ice dam damage from the previous storms (living room, dining room, two bedrooms, foyer so far). Just had a crew chipping ice dams yesterday and it is windy enough today that the roof isn't accumulating too much now.

Good news is that my twelve year old Craftsman snow blower starts on first pull even at 10F and I can still barely throw the snow above the banks along the sidewalk. And, the house is warm.

 

[Garandman]

My son's hockey game was to be 7am at the Dorchester DCR rink. High tide was 7:26am and the storm surge was forecast at over two feet, which usually submerges Gallivan Blvd. We were planning on takin a canoe but DCR announced rink closure mid afternoon Saturday so we stayed put.

We have to drive to Lake Placid next week so I had the Outback checked out. The links and bushings on the sway bars both front and rear had to be replaced from slamming into potholes. We have Nokian Haakapeliita R2's on it and my wife's Odyssey and they're absolutely amazing. It's great: I can drive in perfect control behind people on All Seasons going 20mph.....

 

[IslandTractor]

My son's hockey game was to be 7am at the Dorchester DCR rink. High tide was 7:26am and the storm surge was forecast at over two feet, which usually submerges Gallivan Blvd. We were planning on takin a canoe but DCR announced rink closure mid afternoon Saturday so we stayed put.

We have to drive to Lake Placid next week so I had the Outback checked out. The links and bushings on the sway bars both front and rear had to be replaced from slamming into potholes. We have Nokian Haakapeliita R2's on it and my wife's Odyssey and they're absolutely amazing. It's great: I can drive in perfect control behind people on All Seasons going 20mph.....

Pothole crop is pretty good this year. I was surprised by the number of new ones on 93N between Boston and Somerville yesterday that were not present Friday. Big tire popping ones too. Those overpasses are like pothole fertilizer.

Snow seems to have stopped but still pretty windy. At this point I hope the wind continues as it blows snow off the roof.

Oh yea, just heard, our postponed hockey game has been rescheduled for 6am tomorrow. Wonderful.

 

[Garandman]

Update 10:14am.

Accushnet 22"
Milton 21.2"
Salisbury 20.5"
New Bedford 20.0"
Lexington 16.6"
Boston 13.0"

National Weather Service Text Product Display

 

[NewfieDan]

In Edmonton they have "Snow Routes". These are used for heavy snow falls. The city declares snow routes in effect. That means that there is no on street parking for 72hrs, where snow routes are identified. Anyone parking in a snow route will be ticketed and towed. The declaration is made public through local TV and newspapers. Both city police and tow companies focus on the snow routes to make sure they are kept clear for the plow drivers.

The routes are identified by street signs.

 

[aczlan]

We actually drove fifteen miles following closely behind a phalanx of big plow trucks (what is the proper collective noun for a group of snowplows? A blizzard of plows? A shovelful of plows? A scraper of plows?) along 95 until, within a mile of the rink, we got a call telling us the game was postponed until this afternoon. Great.

They call it a Conga Line (usually clearing an interstate from one side to the other all at one time, or moving snow from the center to the shoulder).

Aaron Z

 

[IslandTractor]

They call it a Conga Line (usually clearing an interstate from one side to the other all at one time, or moving snow from the center to the shoulder). Aaron Z

Yep, that's what they were doing.

I was thinking that a blizzard of snowplows would be appropriate but conga line captures it perfectly.