Bad Drivers! New Towers.

            Since work has required me to drive 3 hours each way from home I have been dealing with a lot more traffic lately. Have to say, I wish the traffic laws were both enforced more and that the fines for breaking those laws had more impact. When they blatantly disobey the laws, you know that the fines are meaningless.

            I think that in order to get people to follow the rules we need to make it hurt a bit more. Take the fine for speeding from a couple hundred to at least $1,000 for the first offense and dbl for each additional offense. When someone like me that always obeys the speed laws, does not drive down the “bike lane” to make right turns at lights, etc… see’s all the idiots doing things against the law and getting away with it, I have to really start to wonder why we even have them on the books.

            It seems to me that this idea would solve a couple of issues. It would cut down on the bad drivers on the roads and it would be a way to fund the police departments in this time of increasing costs.

            OK, enough rant for today… just tired of stupid drivers that get away with breaking the law way too often!

            On a different note, here are a couple photos of the power line pole bases they are putting in on the job I’m working on near Conrad MT. Very interesting process and lots of people required to make it all happen. Project is about 1/2 way from Canada to Great Falls and the projected finish date has moved from Aug. 1^st to Oct. 1^st.  

I just like the clouds in this shot and it makes it look like the pole and the crane are not vertical to the ground. The sections on the ground will be pressed together like a fishing pole before being lifted into place on top of the base. 

This is the view to the north showing the bases of poles going in across the fields. A few crews down the line and they will put the tops 3 pieces in place. 

Here is the base of the pole about to be in place. the frame work on the ground is to hold the pole level and lined up until the other crews get there to put in either cement or gravel. The pole is about 4' in dia at the base and the hole is 6' in dia by 21 feet deep!