From the 500 block of E. Lincolnway to the west 600 block, U. S. Route 30 was confined to one-way traffic in alternating lanes, on Friday, July 12, 2019. The slow-down lasted approximately three hours, from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00. “Two Licensed Flaggers,” reported City Administrator Barry Dykhuizen, assisted with traffic control. Crew Leader of the Morrison Public Works Department Mike Garland and Scott Shepard have completed Illinois Department of Transportation training, stated Dykhuizen, as have other members of the Department.
Traffic regulation was necessary to provide safe deconstruction of overhanging limbs by Ryan’s Tree Service, Inc., 23454 Emerson Road, Sterling, IL. He was charged with facilitating a clear path for supersized cargo that would travel on U. S. Route 30 the next day, Saturday, July 13.
Gene Ryan was solicited for the arduous task by Contractors Cargo Co., based in Houston, TX. The business hauls “big stuff,” stated Operations Manager for the Illinois project, David Soriano. He is General Manager at Contractors Cargo Co. in Compton, CA.
Soriano did not exaggerate; they deliver loads weighing 100,000 to 1,000,000 pounds! The latter weight would describe generators, transformers, and turbines that are transported to nuclear plants. Soriano noted CCC was one of the first companies to haul the Space Shuttle Challenger, after it was retired, from Edwards Air Force Base in California and to NASA in Houston. CCC hauled the shuttle seven times, he added.
Saturday’s trucks traveling west-to-east through Morrison each will transport one wind turbine weighing over 245,000 pounds. Each turbine is 16′ wide, 26′ long, and 15′ high. Soriano’s contract is to deliver 74 turbines to Green River Wind Farm, between Deer Grove, and Ohio, IL. He has 59 to go and can deliver ten units a week. Trucks roll Monday through Saturday beginning at dawn. Delivery began the last week of June and will be completed, he estimated, the second or third week of August.Ryan had a dozen trees to trim across 300 yards of City right-of-way. His team included son Brett, above, waiting to advance the bucket truck to the next tree and watching his father work, below left; grandson Derick Cummings; Robert Munther.
The men began at 600 E. Lincolnway with an oak on the north side of the road; at 512 E. Lincolnway Ryan trimmed a maple. He cut overhanging limbs, from the underside, but maintained the trees’ shapes.
At 404 E. Lincolnway he trimmed a locust tree in front of Bosma-Renkes Funeral Home. As branches and limbs fell, the men below the bucket shoved them into a chopper. Fresh mulch was blown into a truck. With his cutting complete, Ryan joined the others in raking small limbs and mounds of leaf clusters to the chopper and loading them in. Right-of-way grass was raked, and street debris was blown into a pile for pickup. The efficient process was applied at each tree Ryan had chosen.
The third tree was a maple at the former Brick House, owned by John Toman, at W. 402. Directly across the street at W. 401 the Rice family maple, shown below, required considerable trimming. Overhanging limbs engulfed four electrical and telephone power lines. Back on the north side of the roadway at W. 406, Ryan’s skillful trimming removed limbs in contact with three power lines. They stretched across the highway from south-to-north, before terminating at a pole between 402 and 406.
The boom truck now zigzagged across the W. 400 block, stopping at 407 and 408. In the W. 500 block there were three stops. Sometimes, a cut took out deadwood, to prevent dessicated limbs from falling on vehicles.
Residences at W. 627, W. 629, and W. 631 needed maple trimming, too. Inside Carolyn Aiken’s home at W. 629, there was a curious audience.
Trees did not suffer from Ryan’s subtle trimming. They do not look deformed, as trees do when linemen “trim” out a gigantic gouge around the wires. Overgrown and/or overhanging branches block tsidewalks and create dangerous blind spots for locals.
Several were observed along the highway. One was an obscured “Hospital” sign on the south side. Ryan trimmed branches that covered it. Another, on the north, was at an intersection. Drivers attempting to enter Lincolnway were in jeopardy of being hit by rapid vehicles approaching from the east. Because this tree is on private–not City–property, Ryan did not trim the offending branch.
The photo at left shows Ryan’s front bumper properly aligned with the beginning of the sidewalk. At right, the truck has moved slightly closer to the road; a trailer approaches from the east..
At left is a view slightly closer to the road. The right photo indicates how close a driver must get to the edge of the highway, in order to see approaching vehicles and merge.
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