Water Main Break: Hollywood, Cal.

February 18th, 2015

Another 100 year-old water main came apart in Hollywood sometime last night.  After listening to the affected residents in the area who were interviewed on the news reports, it doesn’t appear that society saved any money by not proactively replacing this pipe/main/valve (or whatever) ahead of its catastrophic failure. 

Of course, I have heard of an untold number of water main failures across the nation since I have last blogged on the matter.  However, after seeing many cities and towns begin to replace and upgrade their water mains over the last few years, I have more-or-less been letting the matter slide. 

Nevertheless, this particular water main break in Hollywood is a perfect case-in-point to show that it is likely to be cheaper (less expensive) to proactively replace these systems than to wait to do so after any catastrophic failures – which was one of the original points and issues that brought this blog into existence.  Worth noting, Hollywood, California is in an earthquake zone.  So, to wait a 100 years or so before replacing any necessary infrastructure (which would be subject to failure/fatigue due to earthquakes) also seems as yet another perfect example of ineptitude and most likely an example of gross negligence as well.

See:  Pipe bursts, sending 100,000 gallons into Hollywood Hills neighborhood

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-water-main-break-floods-hollywood-hills-neighborhood-submerges-vehicles-20150218-story.html

Adam Trotter, PE  

Build to Earthquake Building Codes Everywhere!

November 25th, 2014

Today there was an earthquake in Oklahoma.

Though I may not have blogged on the subject for a considerable amount of time, I am still a strong advocate for building any structures to meet/in accordance with earthquake building safety codes everywhere in the USA.  To me it appears negligent and maybe even reckless - if not merely silly - to not build to earthquake building safety codes everywhere in the nation because such phenomena seems to be able to happen nearly anywhere. 

Adam Trotter, P.E.

See:

4.0 earthquake rattles Medford [Oklahoma] Tuesday morning

http://www.koco.com/news/4-0-earthquake-rattles-Medford-Tuesday-morning/29920072

Earthquake Today in Washington, DC. Shakes Much of the Eastern U.S.

http://engineeringandcommerce.blogspot.com/2011/08/earthquake-in-washington-dc.html

Earthquake Off Long Island, New York. Build to Earthquake Building Code Specifications Everywhere in U.S.!!

http://engineeringandcommerce.blogspot.com/2010/12/earthquake-off-long-island-new-york.html

Los Angeles and Orange County Traffic Solutions.

November 23rd, 2014

Hey Los Angeles and Orange County!  Would you like me to solve many of your vehicular traffic-jam and traffic congestion difficulties?  Many traffic flow problems seem like they could be solved without any earthen works at all!  Most of the solutions likely would only require a small crew and a day or so to reroute the traffic flow patterns.  

The roadway-planner people apparently are too stuck in their paradigms to make these easy fixes that would alleviate traffic congestion throughout the region.  I have contacted those folks with my ideas only to have those ideas dismissed out-of-hand.  The roadway designer folks don’t seem to understand the basics of traffic flow – that, or they like traffic to not flow and create a whole lot of pollution from car exhaust, the wasting of a lot of fuel, or something!

I guarantee that many of the roadway traffic difficulties can be alleviated and I would offer these solutions for no cost if the problems were not alleviated to the voting motorists’ satisfaction.  I would only ask that a referendum be sponsored and voted upon after-the-fact as to whether I should be paid anything for my efforts.  So, if the traffic nightmares are not reduced in the vicinity of my implemented ideas then it is unlikely that the voters would approve any pay for my efforts.  If certain freeway exchanges and the likes have better traffic flow after my efforts, then I would expect the voters to approve some amount of pay for my endeavors.  I mean…, we spend billions on these idiotic highway planners and highway workers forever working on the roads and yet they only rarely seem to make traffic any better.  

By the way, this blog entry is years overdue.  Having it take 2-1/2 hours to drive 30 miles down the freeway/highway the other day because of traffic congestion merely because the roadway planners can’t seem to figure out how traffic flow could be improved has finally pushed me to the brink of offering my services to fix this forever-ongoing problem.  Again, if I don’t make for better traffic flow with my efforts, then pay me nothing!

Adam Vernon Trotter, P.E. 

PS.  I would extend this same guarantee of alleviating roadway traffic congestion to the Boston, Houston, and NYC areas too – as well as any other metropolitan area that forever has absurd traffic jams. 

Do Unto Others and the Same Will Be Done Unto You By Others !!

Please see:

 

Do Unto Others and the Same Will Be Done Unto You By Others !!

http://tornadotamer.blogspot.com/2009/10/do-unto-others-and-same-will-be-done.html

Goal Setting.

Goal-setting is where it’s at.  Make it a good one for all concerned. 

AVT  (August, 2014)

See:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCcLNmOpN3A   

Entry also posted at:

http://poetrybyadamvernontrotter.blogspot.com/2014/08/goal-setting.html