Spring Gravel Grinder

This winter the DOT and municipality of Anchorage spread approximately 40,000 cubic yards of sand and gravel around town.

Now that the snow and ice is mostly gone from the roads much of that gravel has migrated to shoulders and bike lanes, turning my typical rides around town into a lot of gravel cruising.


It won't be there for too long though. Thanks to enforcement of the Clean Water Act there is a June 1st deadline to have all the streets in town swept (and in general they get swept twice by then).
Last year the city had a $1.8million street sweeping budget, and will likely spend closer to $2mil this year.
A significant change from the ~$70,000 budget they had for street sweeping back in 2005.

Makes riding bikes nicer.



I spotted this thing abandoned on the bike path on my way home yesterday. Still had gas in the tank, so I wonder what the story was.

Of all the days to not be riding the Big Dummy.

It was gone by the time I cruised by this morning.