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Expat Ajijic meeting


HarryB

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The mexican residents of Ajijic who are dealing with Chapala re the carretera have asked me to invite interested expats to an informational meeting at the old posada at 5 p.m. on monday. They will be returning from meeting with the municipality and want to inform expat residents. These are NOT government officials. They are community leaders who are trying to influence what is happening to our village.

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As always Harry thanks for your service to the community!  I plan on attending to explain why the repaving on this project is shoddy and can be expected to fail within a year just as we now see the pot holes proliferating on Chapala highway.

1.  Failure to repair deeper pot holes after surface is scraped.

2.  Failure to carefully sweep loose material from scraped surface prior to resurfacing.

3.  Failure to put near enough surface prep tar down before resurfacing.

4.  Failure to resurface in sufficient thickness.

5.  Probably inferior quality resurfacing material, incorrect aggregate mix and insufficient asphalt in the mix. 

What happens as a result of these deficiencies is as soon as the rain starts it leaks into the pavement, spreads out on the old surface due to poor adhesion and you quickly get those divot potholes in the resurface layer, followed soon after by deeper potholes as the surface underneath breaks down.  You can easily see this on the rapidly proliferating failures on Chapala highway.

On top of this whoever came up with this crackpot idea for the barriers needs to go back to school.  There's a reason why there are more and more crashes, 3 in just the last several days.  They are too low and not visible from the driver's seat for west bound traffic.  Why the existing sections that were in good condition were removed is a complete mystery to me.  Attractive patching and painting would have sufficed.

Even stupider is to create a maintenance requirement that is not going to be fulfilled with those planters.  La Floresta might maintain the ones through there but the rest, good luck with that.

 

 

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46 minutes ago, HarryB said:

please translate into spanish and put on the Chapala gov, facebook page!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The person that operates that page understands English. Most people that read that page understand how to use google translate. Maincoon's  observation won't likely get posted ,in any event.

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7 minutes ago, happyjillin said:

The person that operates that page understands English. Most people that read that page understand how to use google translate. Maincoon's  observation won't likely get posted ,in any event.

Yeah they most likely already know the work is shoddy and won't last.  This is repaving 101, too complicated for them.

 

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3 hours ago, Mainecoons said:

As always Harry thanks for your service to the community!  I plan on attending to explain why the repaving on this project is shoddy and can be expected to fail within a year just as we now see the pot holes proliferating on Chapala highway.

1.  Failure to repair deeper pot holes after surface is scraped.

2.  Failure to carefully sweep loose material from scraped surface prior to resurfacing.

3.  Failure to put near enough surface prep tar down before resurfacing.

4.  Failure to resurface in sufficient thickness.

5.  Probably inferior quality resurfacing material, incorrect aggregate mix and insufficient asphalt in the mix. 

What happens as a result of these deficiencies is as soon as the rain starts it leaks into the pavement, spreads out on the old surface due to poor adhesion and you quickly get those divot potholes in the resurface layer, followed soon after by deeper potholes as the surface underneath breaks down.  You can easily see this on the rapidly proliferating failures on Chapala highway.

On top of this whoever came up with this crackpot idea for the barriers needs to go back to school.  There's a reason why there are more and more crashes, 3 in just the last several days.  They are too low and not visible from the driver's seat for west bound traffic.  Why the existing sections that were in good condition were removed is a complete mystery to me.  Attractive patching and painting would have sufficed.

Even stupider is to create a maintenance requirement that is not going to be fulfilled with those planters.  La Floresta might maintain the ones through there but the rest, good luck with that.

 

 

I disagree on the barriers being a crackpot idea for the section from Ajijic to Chapala. The vehicles that planted themselves on top had to have quite a bit of speed to do that. If the barriers weren't there what would they be hitting instead ? The bike path is being used extensively by pedestrians as well ( although they need to learn to walk in line rather than side by side )

They should paint the barriers yellow or something but they are not hard to see at all and there will be lighting every 40 ft or so installed

Downtown Ajijic should probably not have any barriers to allow for emergency vehicle passing, but obviously no parking should be allowed. Currently there is zero enforcement.

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36 minutes ago, ea93105 said:

I disagree on the barriers being a crackpot idea for the section from Ajijic to Chapala. The vehicles that planted themselves on top had to have quite a bit of speed to do that. If the barriers weren't there what would they be hitting instead ? The bike path is being used extensively by pedestrians as well ( although they need to learn to walk in line rather than side by side )

They should paint the barriers yellow or something but they are not hard to see at all and there will be lighting every 40 ft or so installed

Downtown Ajijic should probably not have any barriers to allow for emergency vehicle passing, but obviously no parking should be allowed. Currently there is zero enforcement.

I am looking forward to the street lights planned. That will definitely help.

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37 minutes ago, ea93105 said:

I disagree on the barriers being a crackpot idea for the section from Ajijic to Chapala. The vehicles that planted themselves on top had to have quite a bit of speed to do that. If the barriers weren't there what would they be hitting instead ? The bike path is being used extensively by pedestrians as well ( although they need to learn to walk in line rather than side by side )

They should paint the barriers yellow or something but they are not hard to see at all and there will be lighting every 40 ft or so installed

Downtown Ajijic should probably not have any barriers to allow for emergency vehicle passing, but obviously no parking should be allowed. Currently there is zero enforcement.

The barriers that were there just redirect them facing forward.  These encourage them to go over the low parts and be hung up on the higher parts.

One of the things they teach in road school is to understand the interaction between poor design and heightened accident rates.  With the previous barriers did you see three accidents of this type in less than a week?  No you did not.  

I don't care what color you paint them, because the narrowed lanes put west bound traffic right against them and the driver sits on the opposite side of the vehicle they will not be seen by the driver.  The low parts of their design make it very easy for a vehicle to mount them as opposed to being pushed off.  Because of that they have added a threat to pedestrians and cyclists alike because it is no longer very likely vehicles will be prevented from careening over and into the bike lane.

It's just bad design and it is already proving itself to be so.  Given the traffic lights around here are partly or fully out much of the time do you really expect the lights be be maintained any better?  I don't.

The community should be insisting this project is stopped immediately and replaced with barriers that are not a hazard to both motorists and users of the bike path.  I've seen a lot of stupid stuff in my engineering career but nothing as bad as this.

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5 hours ago, Mainecoons said:

3.  Failure to put near enough surface prep tar down before resurfacing.

Funny enough, the new sidewalk in Chapala on the north side of the carraterra (Hidalgo) just west of the main traffic light, got a nice coating of tar before the asphalt just went down.     Hmmmmm????

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2 hours ago, Mainecoons said:

The barriers that were there just redirect them facing forward.  These encourage them to go over the low parts and be hung up on the higher parts.

One of the things they teach in road school is to understand the interaction between poor design and heightened accident rates.  With the previous barriers did you see three accidents of this type in less than a week?  No you did not.  

I don't care what color you paint them, because the narrowed lanes put west bound traffic right against them and the driver sits on the opposite side of the vehicle they will not be seen by the driver.  The low parts of their design make it very easy for a vehicle to mount them as opposed to being pushed off.  Because of that they have added a threat to pedestrians and cyclists alike because it is no longer very likely vehicles will be prevented from careening over and into the bike lane.

It's just bad design and it is already proving itself to be so.  Given the traffic lights around here are partly or fully out much of the time do you really expect the lights be be maintained any better?  I don't.

The community should be insisting this project is stopped immediately and replaced with barriers that are not a hazard to both motorists and users of the bike path.  I've seen a lot of stupid stuff in my engineering career but nothing as bad as this.

Except that there were zero barriers before where these accidents happened ( La Floresta ) so you are comparing apples to oranges. Who knows what happened to these  trucks that caused them to launch up on the barriers, ( cars don't have enough ground clearance to get up ). If it was a case of them trying to pass on the right because they could do it before, well now they know.    A car or truck would have to going crazy speeds to completely get to the other side with the new design. I agree that they put them  too far into the road. as you enter Ajijic and Chapala. ( doubtful they will move them) Time for drivers to learn about the new barriers, they are set in concrete. Curious what you propose for downtown Ajijic ? I believe that is the purpose of the meeting right ?

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2 hours ago, ea93105 said:

Except that there were zero barriers before where these accidents happened ( La Floresta ) so you are comparing apples to oranges. Who knows what happened to these  trucks that caused them to launch up on the barriers, ( cars don't have enough ground clearance to get up ). If it was a case of them trying to pass on the right because they could do it before, well now they know.    A car or truck would have to going crazy speeds to completely get to the other side with the new design. I agree that they put them  too far into the road. as you enter Ajijic and Chapala. ( doubtful they will move them) Time for drivers to learn about the new barriers, they are set in concrete. Curious what you propose for downtown Ajijic ? I believe that is the purpose of the meeting right ?

https://www.facebook.com/2384303558309163/photos/a.2384355774970608/4125304770875691/?type=3&eid=ARDXmkqPtaGeoVKCx0KoT3G-sYlHETGZJfZl4rJ6EaOqwt7c782WukOF6YRi9kmF0TWy8dThPuXhs7xb&__xts__[0]=68.ARCCyCAnJdAC1-mq6jIu6eCEdpq7JosL52SR9Xzbo5-GoUyzEiJZWJeAaY47ZWr1qc6r_0V4TOvly-Y04u6batZbDafGMc69s2vIQFp8vZIwNolVFjx9e26yLbvlXxTS11S38kWHjpUlI9tbVQiaue-NY7wrqDOtWuDK1mRJuMIH5VzKxLh6JfM7UzV3f3AExhaZcwPvWreryWoju3MPIg_P-9LF5jz1iV3p17TH3hlVtMndCGkZJYHH-XxQupGZOIKcarJgFrQRvGGJqWA4vAb8I2va7xuiUNSduzfOh1uYtxIbfuiFgqC64aDKR0_KDxqvsLUhw32Afw8UfbWi3RniGdsmOkqQmXwtKbfpPoOtdKsw3QhgFgHI&__tn__=EEHH-R

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3 hours ago, ajijicbound said:

I am looking forward to the street lights planned. That will definitely help.

 

4 hours ago, ea93105 said:

I disagree on the barriers being a crackpot idea for the section from Ajijic to Chapala. The vehicles that planted themselves on top had to have quite a bit of speed to do that. If the barriers weren't there what would they be hitting instead ? The bike path is being used extensively by pedestrians as well ( although they need to learn to walk in line rather than side by side )

They should paint the barriers yellow or something but they are not hard to see at all and there will be lighting every 40 ft or so installed

Downtown Ajijic should probably not have any barriers to allow for emergency vehicle passing, but obviously no parking should be allowed. Currently there is zero enforcement.

The bike paths are rarely used by pedestrians. Not extensively used at all. Count the people using it and you will see. Pedestrians are better served by walking on the lateral

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4 hours ago, Mainecoons said:

The barriers that were there just redirect them facing forward.  These encourage them to go over the low parts and be hung up on the higher parts.

One of the things they teach in road school is to understand the interaction between poor design and heightened accident rates.  With the previous barriers did you see three accidents of this type in less than a week?  No you did not.  

I don't care what color you paint them, because the narrowed lanes put west bound traffic right against them and the driver sits on the opposite side of the vehicle they will not be seen by the driver.  The low parts of their design make it very easy for a vehicle to mount them as opposed to being pushed off.  Because of that they have added a threat to pedestrians and cyclists alike because it is no longer very likely vehicles will be prevented from careening over and into the bike lane.

It's just bad design and it is already proving itself to be so.  Given the traffic lights around here are partly or fully out much of the time do you really expect the lights be be maintained any better?  I don't.

The community should be insisting this project is stopped immediately and replaced with barriers that are not a hazard to both motorists and users of the bike path.  I've seen a lot of stupid stuff in my engineering career but nothing as bad as this.

I agree. Being from California and driving mountain roads with switchbacks that are protected by metal barriers 3' - 4' high with steel horizontal beams designed to deflect a wayward vehicle, not impale it, I am amazed at this stupidity. This is a typical government fiasco (not limited to México) where someones brother, cousin or best friend is in the cement business!!!  

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Lakeside is really fortunate to have so many construction engineers in their gringo population. Many years ago it was just military top brass that ended up here... at least according to their (maybe elevated) professed rank. What a difference 15 years makes.....

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1 hour ago, cedros said:

 

The bike paths are rarely used by pedestrians. Not extensively used at all. Count the people using it and you will see. Pedestrians are better served by walking on the lateral

I see a lot of pedestrians on the bike path between SA and Riberas, occasionally some roller bladers as well, not as much in La Floresta where there are plenty of alternative routes

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54 minutes ago, gringohombre said:

I agree. Being from California and driving mountain roads with switchbacks that are protected by metal barriers 3' - 4' high with steel horizontal beams designed to deflect a wayward vehicle, not impale it, I am amazed at this stupidity. This is a typical government fiasco (not limited to México) where someones brother, cousin or best friend is in the cement business!!!  

The difference here is that we have an almost perfectly straight road so the barriers are only to prevent cars from going into the bike path from driver error or intentionally rather than loss of control due to curves. True that the old style barriers are more likely to deflect than the new design but they are also ugly. I appreciate that they tried to add some visual appeal with the new design. Time will tell whether the flower idea will work out. As a bicyclist I am willing to accept the extremely small increment of danger of the new design.

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"A lot of pedestrians on the bike path!?"  You must be seeing in quadruplicate or more. West of Ajijic you see many more cyclists using the carretera rather than the bike path-usage of the bike path is rare there. ea93105 you have a lot to learn about Mexico. So naive but you will probably get some sense. Bicycling and Mexico only go together in some of the larger cities like Guadalajara.

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