The current January turned out to be such as it should be the present winter month. For the first time in a few years, enough snow fell, which then grabbed the frost. Roads and sidewalks began to generously sprinkle with salt.
At the same time, as usual, conversations began among motorists and pedestrians: they say, it is impossible to use another reagent, which does not spoil shoes, does not corrupt the bottoms of the car and does not spoil the green plantings and facades of Riga houses. But this year the problem aggravated the ban for sale in stores both the shoes and cleaning agents for it.
What is the weather forecast?
If the Latvian Center for Wednesday, Geology and Meteorology gives short-term forecasts for up to five days, with which you can find on the website of the department, then with more long-term weather predictions.But more or less accurate forecast meteorologists are able to give only two or three days. On meteorological stations scattered around the world, visibility, including the distance to the clouds, temperature, humidity, pressure, is measured every three hours. There are such stations in Latvia. For example, one of them is at the entrance to Bausk, next to the Via Baltica highway.
However, weather conditions are very unpredictable, hence and the inability to give more accurate forecasts for at least a couple of weeks. On weather websites, it is also said that information is calculated based on these perennial observations. And a year for a year is not necessary.
Remember, as last winter in January, the kidneys and even bloomed snowdrops? This year, the celestial office showed what should be the real winter - snow and frosty. And now, meteorologists are friendly predicted as the coming February, despite the short-term thaw, will continue the general trend. This means that the janitor and road services will be added.
Tense time
We work with shovels and scrapers only wipers. This is they in Riga are obliged to get up at six o'clock in the morning so that up to eight to have time to clean all the tracks, where the movement of people is most intense. And in their duties, cleaning is not only sidewalks. The janitor is obliged to clean the entrance stairs leading to the entrance, platforms near the entrances and garbage containers. But from a sudden change of weather conditions, no one is insured.
If the snowfall continues, then snowflakes mushrooms become slippery, and on such a coating it is quite possible to fall, and even get injured. Snow man with a shovel creates in heaps on the sidewalk. As a result, in the center of the city, the space of the sidewalk decreases more than half. In addition, passersby is very risking to get under icicles, crosses hanging with insufficient roofs.
When people do not cope, technique comes to the rescue. These are tractors equipped with spades-scrapers in front and brushes from behind. They are involved mainly in Riga parks, but are sent to the neighborhoods. And there is another problem - car parked in the courtyards. Tractors simply nowhere to turn around, in addition, there is a big risk to scratch someone else's property.
Usually, when a snow removal machine is ordered, appropriate ads are postponed on the doors of the entrances, which are preferably not held by motorists. In addition, the owners of vehicles, which more than three days left the car and put it with snow, which created, naturally, the problems for movement on the roadway and sidewalks, are obliged not only to clean their car, but also to remove the territory on which she stood .
Private homeowners are also obliged to clean the territory adjacent to their sites, otherwise there is a risk of getting a fine of up to 200 euros from the Riga police of self-government or urban administrative inspection. In addition, owners (managers) are not only residential buildings, but also buildings used for economic activities are obliged to shoot down snow, icing and icicles from roofs. Such work home buildings must be made for three days after the snowfall.
Cleaning roads
Meanwhile, the roadway both in the city and beyond the snow does not clean. Road machines only scatter a mixture of moistened salt with sand on asphalt. It melts snow, and under the wheels of cars formed by Zhigi in the city flows through the hatches of the storm sewage, and outside the city - to the roadside.But if the snowfall is long, then it is impossible to remove it from the streets - the salt is paid simply falling asleep with new portions of snow. So Vas Latvijas Valsts Celi, which is responsible for the Latvian roads outside the settlements, whenever it declares that it is possible to clean the highway with the end of the snowfall.
Moreover, there is a clear classification in the country: the roads of class A (are the main highways), then, respectively, A1, B and C (regional), and the lines of class D (local significance) are brushing last. During the blizzard, the permissible thickness of the snow cover on the roads of classes A and A1 - 6 centimeters, and in some places even 12.
Is there an alternative?
Everyone knows that a mixture of salt and sand is not the best anti-rolling agent from the point of view of ecology. His incomparable advantage is low cost. But the machines mainly spoil the sand, and not salt: it flies out of the wheels at high speed and removes the anti-corrosion coating. If it were not for this mechanical impact on the body, the car would not rust. Salt corrosive only affected areas on the car body.
The road itself is spoiled - the coat of the asphalt, the concrete parts of bridges and roadside fences, sewer hatches, and the wear rate of the carriage part increases at least twice. Pedestrians suffer - due to walking over salt puddles, the period of carrying shoes is reduced by half, and salt splashes can be in disrete to clothing, leaving the bright stains of the outdoor paint on it.
Salt corrosive and walls of houses. It was not by chance that in 2007 was offered at least in the center of the city to apply a crushed granite crumb, which, at the end of the winter, can be collected and used again. But it turned out that it was too expensive to use it. Although, according to experts, this is the safest material from an ecological point of view.
There are other ways. The most cardinal is heated roads and sidewalks. And in Norway, another technology of struggle with the ice is widespread: the sand is mixed with water heated to 95 degrees, and then the road is watering. Hot water floats ice, which allows the sands to penetrate the asphalt, and when a minute after a minute, the road freezes again, the crust is formed on it, similar to sandpaper.
But, most likely, at least in the coming years, salt from Latvian roads will not go anywhere, and this means that we will again have to endure all the inconvenience that brings this anti-rolling agent.
Alexander Fedotov.