COMMENT OF THE DAY: ALL THAT FRACKING TRAFFIC 
“The gear needed to frac wells on a single well-pad is unbelievably heavy. A single pump might weigh 75,000 lbs, and you use 12 or more on a single pad, not to mention a hydration unit, a blender, a manifold, a data van — and these are the things that just stay on the well site. You also have sand carried in vehicles so big that they are often called ‘sand hulks’. They come and go from a single well site constantly. And depending on how you get water to the site, that may mean even more trucks.
This army of vehicles leaves from a single yard and tends to go over some of the same roads over and over again on its way to different well-pads where the wells to be fracked are.
The point is, fracking tends to place a lot of stress on a small number of roads that are in continuous use in a given area. I work in in the frac business and am totally pro-fracking, and I think it is totally reasonable for localities (whether counties or states) to require a reasonable road maintenance surcharge from companies that operate frac spreads in an area. (Of course, it should be based on actual use.) After all, these are the same roads our employees drive on to get to work or to run errands and that their kids ride school buses on.” [Robert Boyd, commenting on Headlines: A New San Jacinto Monument Museum; Road-Buckling Fracking Trucks] Illustration: Lulu
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Just another money grab.
Not always dispatched from the same truck yard. May come from all over and, especially in the dog-eats-dog OFS world subsidiaries mingle. So it really depends on the OFS providing dumping and/or tanking. Besides a certain linen company near where I live, my take is most yards are in industrial/unincorporated areas any way (and this linen company happens to be considerate).
Water sources and disposal sites vary; they only so much capacity.
BUT, for sure, all the equipment funnels down (and then up from) the same back roads to the pad.
Maybe that grave super market (near the linen place) would consider that its many trucks– arriving every day– wear down the streets, too?
Cabbage ain’t mounds of H2O or dirty uniforms and floor mats. Who knows.
How about: trucks can only turn left? That would save so so so many corners from obliteration! And bonuses for drivers that randomly swerve down the road as they go, distributing the destruction rather than Metro-bus-pock-mocking our streets. Oh shit. They already do that (the buses too).
Sure. All this talk about banning fracking is pure silliness and just delaying the inevitable.
However, whatever impacts industry has, they have a responsibility to mitigate. That includes repairing damaged roads.
@Chris M 2 Umm what the hell are you rambling?
Poor innocent frackers, attacked by facts and data. :( If only these oil companies had a voice and the resources to get their story out there. In the meantime, keep fighting the good fight brave swamplot commenters. Fight on, soldiers. Fight on.
Joe, no more a “money grab” than that of the companies that are heavily damaging the roads and not paying for it. Those roads weren’t designed for those loads, especially on a regular basis. Who do you expect to pay for the road damage if not the people causing it? Or do you think the roads are magically invulnerable to all stresses and last for eternity once built?
And don’t forget, fracking doesn’t affect water quality.
In fact, fracking is good for the environment.
I doubt you can economically build rural roads to take long term heavy truck traffic. Handling that sort of load would result in mini-freeways. I would also not be surprised if forcing the oil and gas industry to pay would result in many wells being shut in, as economics are pretty marginal for many operators as it is.
I cannot imagine them setting a precedent of taking responsibility for ancillary effects of their behavior. That runs counter to what fracking is all about.
Fracking is da debble. Mama says so.
Drilling for oil and gas is an INDUSTRIAL activity so although it doesnt have the doom and gloom that the activist would have you believe, it can take its toll. The problem is states and communities love that the government and people are making a ton of money off these activities, but they also cost you more overhead. These companies i believe have moral responsibility to a help out, but so do the communities. That being said, i dont trust anything that comes from TxDot.