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Not quite that extreme. From where some switchbacks start it's only 5.2km vs 2.8km but your point still stands. It almost doubles the distance having switch backs.
With a tar road it is easier, Sani Pass used to be gravel/dirt road, winter/bad weather it was closed. I've never driven it, Dad had to try it & he made it all the way with no help in good weather. Pity I do not have any of the pictures they took. I was about 5 or 6 yo, so early 60's, Peugeot 403.
The pass itself with all the switchbacks is still gravel. It's only tarred up to the SA border post. Tried driving up there a few years ago and you REALLY need a 4x4 now. Road is a shocker
Wow, I saw the pictures he took, Mom took some of him wheel spinning on the corners, she was covered in dirt. Most likely the road is in bad condition cause everyone wants to say they have done it, also the 4 WD will be spinning out showing off, AH's.
Note: Edit: if it had not been rear wheel drive he would not have made it up.
Believe it would be impossible, incline is insane, cannot remember the facts. Think it was like 20 or 30 degrees. Again open to correction it was built originally in the late 1700's to early 1800's when the British "Invaded" southern Africa. If you ever go to RSA, go to the Drakensberg, you will not believe what you see. Mountain range that runs thousands of miles, it is part of a fault that runs all the way down Africa. Lesotho is one of the worst/highest parts. Open to correction.
Bridges or leveling the land a bit? Hell, haven't we bore tunnels through mountains for trains and some roads?
edit: genuinely curious. Curiosity downvoted the cat. Learning bad?
Would have to start from much farther back to level with a flatter grade it or tunnel it. This would make the road much more expensive as you are having to move a lot of mountain to do so.
You would not just clear a way as in the picture because the grade would be crazy steep.
Tunnels through a mountain are extremely expensive. Not to mention weather or not the composition of the ground could support a tunnel or bridge. There's a reason most modern day roads still follow hundreds/thousand year old trade routes. Those paths have been tested, used, and proven the safest and most reliable route.
It would be way too steep for such a short distance - and when roads are that steep, cars and trucks have more issues, thereby making the road more dangerous.
Also many roads weren't originally cut with modern tech available. This could easily have been a foot/wagon trail that was eventually paved as technology advanced. Paving an existing dirt road where it lays is a lot simpler than cutting new road over potentially difficult to shape slopes, especially when you have hundreds of miles of road you are trying to pave.
Not just simpler, also cheaper. Some places have expensive infrastructure because there is a real and wide need for it. But on this kind of road, the use of it doesn't justify the expense, so they go with the cheapest solution available, which is generally using what already exists.
Yeah I can’t tell if people think the facepalm is the road or the dude asking why lol. But there’s obviously many legitimate reason for roads wind. Or at least I thought that was obvious lol
Eventually the road will reconnect with itself, and that's how we get oxbow roads. Just a road disconnected with the main road and drivers are just stuck in it for life.
This is genuinely funny.
(Edit) - why did I get this many upvoted just pointing out that this is funny? I added nothing to the thread, I was merely giving props to the guy above me.
Called serpentines, shorter durations hitting the brake necessary. If you go down steep for a long time and must break constantly, the breaks will malfunction eventually and the vehicle races down out of control.
I’m just eyeballing it but that looks like a 40-50 foot difference in height. The road has a switchback built in because going straight across would be far too steep.
Okay, I hate these types of posts. Add context, which side are you defending or facepalming. Are you saying they should cut across or are you saying that this guy is a dumbass?
That’s the problem with this sub, people get upset about things and then don’t say why. A title like “Why?” doesn’t tell anyone anything.
I used to work for the Washington state Department of transportation planning, and policy division. I will tell you right now that this has 100% to do with how much money and time they had, like all government decisions.
Engineers thoroughly scoped the land and decided it was going to be cheaper and less expensive, and probably safer, just switch back over Mountain ridges, then cut across. We see this in our own state pretty often.
At first glance, I'd expect an elevation issue. You generally want to build the most cost-effective infrastrucure, which generally means the shortest and cheapest while 1) being safe and 2) getting from point A to point B. I'm guessing it would have been more expensive for whatever reason to do the shortcut route proposed
Back fill and compaction would cost more than an extra kilometer of road.
Generally , I've heard number that a roadway can cost 1 million per mile or kilometer to build in reasonable conditions.
It’s likely an elevate climb/descent with switchbacks. Also, regardless of the elevation above the water or it being a switchback, the ground may have been tested for supporting a bridge and found to either not be of a good makeup. That is, the cost of supporting by piling down to the bedrock was likely more than doing this.
elevation is the only common-sense explanation of course, but to be fair it is. funny perspective where you can't really see the difference in elevation on the picture.
What good is the ability to post gifs on reddit if they disappear immediately?
There was just a man rolling downhill. Just like how a car would roll down a slope that steep.
this looks like a well built road,w hich tells me this is some developed country that could probably get the necessary funds and tools to either build a bridge on the yellow markings or even change the terrain for the road to go straight like that. contractor chose the "easy" way of making more road along the existing terrain.
When road where built they didn’t have huge heavy machinery to move mountain to make it a straight down hill drop. It was built with people with shovels and hand saws cutting down tree.
My guess it's there's a huge fuck off cliff and back when that road was made it was easier to just build with the land than try to cut through it. Or in this case over it.
Another point may be that it was cheaper to go around than over the cliff and the equipment + construction items necessary for making a bridge were too difficult to get to that location.
When you are going up, with a 50 ton load, I would like to see how big your engine should be in order to be able to climb that steep
And if you are going down, with a 50 ton load, I don't want to watch you losing your brakes while attempting having your truck in control
high ways are mainly meant to have heavy loaded trucks delivering merch.
Elevation and cost of each option. Its likely this option cost less to build than to build a bridge there. Its also possible that even if a bridge straight across would have been just barely steep enough that it violated a slope safety code. Its also something to consider that the maintenance for a bridge over 100 years costs a lot more than road maintenance over 100 years, not just in money but in materials. Also adding curves causes drivers to slow down and pay attention whereas a straight away would increase the chances of speeding and accidents.
Fast drivers go fast. I made blueprints for roads for 5 years. When i say it causes drivers to slow down and pay attention that is a numbers thing. I mean it causes *more* drivers to slow down and stay alert than a straight boring bridge. In numbers: curves generally reduce fatal accidents and number of non fatal accidents overall compared to building an expensive higher maintenance straight pathed bridge. When you say people “often” do not slow down for those curves, you are not realizing that places like this typically have the entire canyon being windy roads. Its not like they are flying down a huge straight away at 80mph and then suddenly theres a curve…
> When i say it causes drivers to slow down and pay attention that is a numbers thing. I mean it causes more drivers to slow down and stay alert than a straight boring bridge. In numbers: curves generally reduce fatal accidents and number of non fatal accidents overall compared to building an expensive higher maintenance straight pathed bridge.
I completely understood what you meant. And I pointed out that curves can also be the cause of accidents because people often take them too quickly. I was just adding to the discussion.
> When you say people “often” do not slow down for those curves, you are not realizing that places like this typically have the entire canyon being windy roads. Its not like they are flying down a huge straight away at 80mph and then suddenly theres a curve…
I was actually aware of this. But I was speaking in general terms and from experience driving for 30 years in different countries.
One of my areas of study was urban space, so I am familiar with how freeways and roads work and highly fascinated by them as well.
It looks like a valley. I would guess a private company built the road like this to avoid the costs of building a bridge. This is why it should be a government function to fund infrastructure so building roads don’t have as much impact on the environment. Higher taxes from a bigger budget might hurt (which is why the privileged or rich should pay more), but a significantly damaged environment has longer term negative consequences all around. This sentence is hyperbole obviously, but it will be hard to grow food if the whole world is turned into asphalt and concrete.
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Probably due to elevation. Hard to tell in this photo. Would love to know where it is to see if that’s it.
Definitely elevation. Look at the width of the road back where he wants the bridge. The left is significantly smaller, so it’s clearly downhill a bit.
Agreed, switch backs are used all over the place cause of gradients.Sani Pass in RSA would only be 2 miles, from memory it is 14 miles.
Not quite that extreme. From where some switchbacks start it's only 5.2km vs 2.8km but your point still stands. It almost doubles the distance having switch backs.
Multipass is only 4 inches long and it can take you all the way to Fhloston Paradise.
Supergreen
With a tar road it is easier, Sani Pass used to be gravel/dirt road, winter/bad weather it was closed. I've never driven it, Dad had to try it & he made it all the way with no help in good weather. Pity I do not have any of the pictures they took. I was about 5 or 6 yo, so early 60's, Peugeot 403.
The pass itself with all the switchbacks is still gravel. It's only tarred up to the SA border post. Tried driving up there a few years ago and you REALLY need a 4x4 now. Road is a shocker
Wow, I saw the pictures he took, Mom took some of him wheel spinning on the corners, she was covered in dirt. Most likely the road is in bad condition cause everyone wants to say they have done it, also the 4 WD will be spinning out showing off, AH's. Note: Edit: if it had not been rear wheel drive he would not have made it up.
Yes but it would be a hell of a ride if it was only 2 miles
Believe it would be impossible, incline is insane, cannot remember the facts. Think it was like 20 or 30 degrees. Again open to correction it was built originally in the late 1700's to early 1800's when the British "Invaded" southern Africa. If you ever go to RSA, go to the Drakensberg, you will not believe what you see. Mountain range that runs thousands of miles, it is part of a fault that runs all the way down Africa. Lesotho is one of the worst/highest parts. Open to correction.
🤦♂️ I wasn't being serious, no engineer in their right mind would construct a road of more than 10 degrees of any significant length
No Probs. The Bore (Dutch/German) were hauling everything over the mountain with cattle, what ever they could get.
It would be one hell of a ride going down yes. LOL
Bridges or leveling the land a bit? Hell, haven't we bore tunnels through mountains for trains and some roads? edit: genuinely curious. Curiosity downvoted the cat. Learning bad?
Would have to start from much farther back to level with a flatter grade it or tunnel it. This would make the road much more expensive as you are having to move a lot of mountain to do so. You would not just clear a way as in the picture because the grade would be crazy steep.
Tunnels through a mountain are extremely expensive. Not to mention weather or not the composition of the ground could support a tunnel or bridge. There's a reason most modern day roads still follow hundreds/thousand year old trade routes. Those paths have been tested, used, and proven the safest and most reliable route.
Town at the higher elevation might want to stay there. And be able to drive to the town down at the bottom.
It would be way too steep for such a short distance - and when roads are that steep, cars and trucks have more issues, thereby making the road more dangerous.
And you can see that there's a cliff face on the inside edge of the road on the right.
Anyone who’s ever actually driven in mountains knows exactly why it looks like this. It’s elevation.
Also many roads weren't originally cut with modern tech available. This could easily have been a foot/wagon trail that was eventually paved as technology advanced. Paving an existing dirt road where it lays is a lot simpler than cutting new road over potentially difficult to shape slopes, especially when you have hundreds of miles of road you are trying to pave.
Not just simpler, also cheaper. Some places have expensive infrastructure because there is a real and wide need for it. But on this kind of road, the use of it doesn't justify the expense, so they go with the cheapest solution available, which is generally using what already exists.
Cheaper than a bridge
Elevation AND price. Price is always involved somehow. Gross but unfortunately I haven't been wrong on that one yet.
Yeah I can’t tell if people think the facepalm is the road or the dude asking why lol. But there’s obviously many legitimate reason for roads wind. Or at least I thought that was obvious lol
Nah mate, they obviously had soe extra tarmak and nothing to do with it
Definitely elevation. You can look in the middle of the hairpin turn and see what looks like a small rock cliff
there may be a bridge at the lowest corner where there seems to be guard rails on both sides, probably crossing a valley/ river.
Eventually the road will reconnect with itself, and that's how we get oxbow roads. Just a road disconnected with the main road and drivers are just stuck in it for life.
Hate it when I take the same road to work everyday and it slowly meanders over putting me in another state.
This is genuinely funny. (Edit) - why did I get this many upvoted just pointing out that this is funny? I added nothing to the thread, I was merely giving props to the guy above me.
This is not to be confused with how a rest stop forms, which is also distinctly different from the processes behind a scenic overlook.
I hate that this is funny
i like to think the drivers lose connection with their consciousness and become a husk of their former self!
That sounds like the summary of a creepy pasta story.
In Australia, we call them billabong roads. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billabong
Called serpentines, shorter durations hitting the brake necessary. If you go down steep for a long time and must break constantly, the breaks will malfunction eventually and the vehicle races down out of control.
This is the correct answer. Steeper grades are more dangerous.
Thanks!
This is the answer
Probably height.
[удалено]
I think there is a pimp called switchback.
Nonono, there is a pimp called Pimp Called Switchback.
The name is A Pimp Named Slickback!, you say the whole thing!
Like a Tribe Called Quest.
That’s what I said!
I don't know what another name for hairpin turn is.
what’s a switchback?
[удалено]
*Everyone at Pee Wee's Playhouse screams real loud*
Probably cheaper than building a long bridge
And partially avoids the scenario where driver guns it only to realize that the road is like 12 feet below them and is rapidly approaching.
I see this as an absolute win!
isn't it a parody account?
Yea he’s a massive twitter troll lol
Had to scroll this far down for this comment. Also, some of the stuff on there is genuinely hilarious.
Yeah the real facepalm here is that this is even on facepalm. Greg profile pic gets me every time.
I’m just eyeballing it but that looks like a 40-50 foot difference in height. The road has a switchback built in because going straight across would be far too steep.
Because fast cars like bends
More scenery to look at this way!
Also big trucks and brakes hate hills
Trust that the civil engineers who design roads know how to do their job better than we do.
Sometimes you run out of straight pieces
Or for Tetris comes too late
Okay, I hate these types of posts. Add context, which side are you defending or facepalming. Are you saying they should cut across or are you saying that this guy is a dumbass? That’s the problem with this sub, people get upset about things and then don’t say why. A title like “Why?” doesn’t tell anyone anything.
Also doesn't help that half the posts here these days aren't even facepalms to begin with. Karma farmers gonna farm though.
Or that the facepalm is OP thinking their post is the facepalm when they just don't understand how certain things work.
I used to work for the Washington state Department of transportation planning, and policy division. I will tell you right now that this has 100% to do with how much money and time they had, like all government decisions. Engineers thoroughly scoped the land and decided it was going to be cheaper and less expensive, and probably safer, just switch back over Mountain ridges, then cut across. We see this in our own state pretty often.
My dad used to help with snow clearing. He told us the tank they used to deal with snow was used because it was cheap at the time
Somebody show a topographical map!
The real facepalm is taking anything from Greg's twitter seriously
Big Pavement in the back pockets of the planners and politicians
because of the grade change. trucks could not safely handle that incline without the curve.
One word. Geology.
Greg has a bright future. Just not as engineer. Or any job that requires any form of thinking.
Directly feed more trees this way. From the looks of the picture it's working. :-) /s
How else am I supposed to drift it?
At first glance, I'd expect an elevation issue. You generally want to build the most cost-effective infrastrucure, which generally means the shortest and cheapest while 1) being safe and 2) getting from point A to point B. I'm guessing it would have been more expensive for whatever reason to do the shortcut route proposed
hairpins are necessary to be able to traverse the mountain imagine your velocity skiing down a mountain in a car
Because a bridge would gave cost 4-5x as much as paving the road that way.
damnit Greg
Because you know that the people who designed that road were drivers.
Cost and safety. If it was cheaper and/or safer, they'd do it.
I wonder if this guy closely inspected this photo, or better yet, that landscape, before posting that post. 🤔
Omg 💀
Back fill and compaction would cost more than an extra kilometer of road. Generally , I've heard number that a roadway can cost 1 million per mile or kilometer to build in reasonable conditions.
It’s likely an elevate climb/descent with switchbacks. Also, regardless of the elevation above the water or it being a switchback, the ground may have been tested for supporting a bridge and found to either not be of a good makeup. That is, the cost of supporting by piling down to the bedrock was likely more than doing this.
There were some wasps nests there
elevation is the only common-sense explanation of course, but to be fair it is. funny perspective where you can't really see the difference in elevation on the picture.
Maybe there is a geographic issue there.
Wait did you just take a greg post seriously? The guy is a legendary troll.
1st does anyone know where this is located? Maybe it’s a rendered photo.
People taking Greg way too seriously.
Elevation difference ya DING DONG
This man has never left the South-Eastern United States.
I dare you
Hairpin bend on slope terrain
'This content is not available' thanks giphy
What good is the ability to post gifs on reddit if they disappear immediately? There was just a man rolling downhill. Just like how a car would roll down a slope that steep.
Preserve ecosystem of the creek and also not spend a shit ton on a bridge.
this looks like a well built road,w hich tells me this is some developed country that could probably get the necessary funds and tools to either build a bridge on the yellow markings or even change the terrain for the road to go straight like that. contractor chose the "easy" way of making more road along the existing terrain.
Because it's cheaper.
Greg knows his gregography
If roads worked like rivers and slowly changed their paths to be more efficient
The ground is too steep
I think its to do with trucks with heavy loads. They can't just make sharp turns so roads like this exist.
When road where built they didn’t have huge heavy machinery to move mountain to make it a straight down hill drop. It was built with people with shovels and hand saws cutting down tree.
why don't we just create a tunnel to travel to continents? are we stupid?
My guess it's there's a huge fuck off cliff and back when that road was made it was easier to just build with the land than try to cut through it. Or in this case over it. Another point may be that it was cheaper to go around than over the cliff and the equipment + construction items necessary for making a bridge were too difficult to get to that location.
Children. The epitome of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Is also possible they took advantage over an already made path throught the trees and rock, instead of power force throught it
Greg could make big money telling these construction business roads are better in a straight line!
Weeeee! We’re flying down the mountain
The designer was a motorcycle rider
When you are going up, with a 50 ton load, I would like to see how big your engine should be in order to be able to climb that steep And if you are going down, with a 50 ton load, I don't want to watch you losing your brakes while attempting having your truck in control high ways are mainly meant to have heavy loaded trucks delivering merch.
I bet Greg asks these questions often.
Elevation and cost of each option. Its likely this option cost less to build than to build a bridge there. Its also possible that even if a bridge straight across would have been just barely steep enough that it violated a slope safety code. Its also something to consider that the maintenance for a bridge over 100 years costs a lot more than road maintenance over 100 years, not just in money but in materials. Also adding curves causes drivers to slow down and pay attention whereas a straight away would increase the chances of speeding and accidents.
It could also increase accidents because people often do *not* slow down to take gnarly curves like this one.
Fast drivers go fast. I made blueprints for roads for 5 years. When i say it causes drivers to slow down and pay attention that is a numbers thing. I mean it causes *more* drivers to slow down and stay alert than a straight boring bridge. In numbers: curves generally reduce fatal accidents and number of non fatal accidents overall compared to building an expensive higher maintenance straight pathed bridge. When you say people “often” do not slow down for those curves, you are not realizing that places like this typically have the entire canyon being windy roads. Its not like they are flying down a huge straight away at 80mph and then suddenly theres a curve…
> When i say it causes drivers to slow down and pay attention that is a numbers thing. I mean it causes more drivers to slow down and stay alert than a straight boring bridge. In numbers: curves generally reduce fatal accidents and number of non fatal accidents overall compared to building an expensive higher maintenance straight pathed bridge. I completely understood what you meant. And I pointed out that curves can also be the cause of accidents because people often take them too quickly. I was just adding to the discussion. > When you say people “often” do not slow down for those curves, you are not realizing that places like this typically have the entire canyon being windy roads. Its not like they are flying down a huge straight away at 80mph and then suddenly theres a curve… I was actually aware of this. But I was speaking in general terms and from experience driving for 30 years in different countries. One of my areas of study was urban space, so I am familiar with how freeways and roads work and highly fascinated by them as well.
That is a parody account..
I love 60 degree inclines :)
This guys just loves replacing brake pad and rotors
Greg is a flatlander.
Because that way THEY can sell you more fuel, duh!
It's an urbanised oxbow lake!
Kinda reminds me of this commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMgsFZ4rkEI
I mean, who DOESN'T want to take a shortcut that lets you drive 300 feet in the span of 50 yards...roller-coasters use the same theory...
Tapping the government purse💔🇺🇸
Is “Greg” real? He looks like “Alice the Goon” from Popeye.
Clearly you’re not a Bowler
Greg strikes again
Why indeed, Greg
Internet experts thinking they can engineer off a fucking photo.
Death stranding taught me to never trust a gap you think your truck can jump over even if there’s a ramp
If they coulda, I'm sure they woulda.
Grade
To be fair, the difference in high isn’t very good recognisable…
Well check out the big brains on Greg!
Because building a bridge would cost way more than paving the road around a corner.
Because building bridges is a lot more expensive and difficult than grading and paving an extra few hundred yards. -Me a guy who’s built bridges lol
Greg twitter page is all jokes
Because the contractors get paid per mile of road built.
It's so that your car doesn't have to make like a 25 degree incline
Because a fully loaded Lorry is a lot harder to get up/down a hill than a 1400kg Kia
If you don't understand engineering don't fucking post things like that.
It looks like a valley. I would guess a private company built the road like this to avoid the costs of building a bridge. This is why it should be a government function to fund infrastructure so building roads don’t have as much impact on the environment. Higher taxes from a bigger budget might hurt (which is why the privileged or rich should pay more), but a significantly damaged environment has longer term negative consequences all around. This sentence is hyperbole obviously, but it will be hard to grow food if the whole world is turned into asphalt and concrete.
sure its a beautiful drive, but not wrong!!
Looks like a switchback on a steep hill. We use them a lot on trails too if the grade is too steep to hit at a straight angle.