Return of the road spikes

The city puts these spikes in the street to hold down air hoses for traffic studies. The spikes are supposed to be pounded flush with the pavement after they aren't being used any more. But as I've found (over and over and over) they are often not pounded flat.

This spike is on N. 34th in Fremont. It's on the south side of the street, maybe two meters from the curb, near the Sunday Market marker for stall 47, about where the new steel towers carry the new high-tension line cross the street. The Burke building is on the south side of the street here.

This is a busy bike route, with several bikes a minute passing through this way during rush hour. On Sundays, this is a very busy walking route, with people packed along the street in good weather.

If these spikes are not pounded down, they can cause a bike flat tire or even loss of control. Eventually they work their way loose. The resulting spike is several inches of hardened steel that can cause a serious injury to a person, a flat tire on a car, and other damage. This is why it's Seattle policy that these spikes get pounded down. Yet it doesn't happen. Now somebody has to take time out of their day to come back out and pound the spike down. It would have been better to do it right the first time.


Jim said...

I'd always wondered what/why those were there. You're right that it's a lost opportunity to take care fo them at the time.

Erik Nilsson said...

Thanks for writing, Jim.

This one appears to have been pulled up by someone, because it's now gone. Maybe someone associated with the Sunday Market stubbed their toe on it and just pulled it out.

I'm pretty sure the City didn't fix it, because they prefer to pound them flat, to reduce water penetration into the pavement.

Maybe we need a technology less, um, blunt than nails and airhoses for this?