sand buildup problems on the SGR trail

Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 13:38:51 -0700
To: "Diego Cadena, Dep. Dir." <DCadena@dpw.lacounty.gov>, "Afshari, Shari, Div Head" <SAfshari@dpw.lacounty.gov>, "Paul Maselbas, Principal Eng" <PMaselbas@dpw.lacounty.gov>, "El-Rabaa, Maged, Program Dev." <MElrabaa@dpw.lacounty.gov>, "Alma Fuentes, Bicycle Coord." <AFuentes@dpw.lacounty.gov>, "Connie Sziebl, Field Rep for Knabe" <CSziebl@lacbos.org>
From: Lakewood Accountability Action Group | LAAG <updates@LAAG.us>
Subject: sand buildup problems on the SGR trail


I have been pointing out (to the county) sand buildup problems on the trail for years. Usually the place where it collects is under bridges and 300 feet either side of the bridges or tunnel in approaches. (Where the path dips down close to the sand) This is just due to poor design for runoff and lack of simple maintenance. Better design however would result in lower maintenance costs. As a result right after each rain, no matter how slight all these section have to be swept. 1/4 inch of fine sand is treacherous for especially road bikes (or any bike really) and can easily lead to a loss of control at almost any speed, even going straight let alone turning. Also the pavement near these bridge sections is poor. That is also a problem. Sand is white and blends in with the concrete color. Also it may be hiding other dangers or road surface problems underneath.

We had rain last on 9/21/07-9/22/07. No sand was swept as of 10/11/07. And now this weekend more rain. So sweeping has to be redone at the problem areas

I think the problem on the trail maint. has a number of causes: (1) the people that do the work are not very conscientious and/or (2) there is either no inspection of their finished work or contractors are county employees are saying the work is done and its not (If thats the case taxpayer dollars are being wasted) (3) the people that think the work was done don't ride road bikes over it so they really don't understand the safety problem to begin with as they just ride in cars or trucks with huge tires; (4) there may be poor direction given (poor communication) or workers just dont understand what the issue is and why it needs to be cleaned up properly or what is "proper". Likely it is all of the foregoing.

I was also puzzled numerous times on the carson/wardlow section where some holes and cracks would get patched but not ones nearly identical right nearby. Made no sense at all. I would love to ask the workers what they were thinking but never get to see them at the site

There are section of the trial that are quite clean but then they never really get dirty. You need to focus on the problems sections.