Bay Bridge shutdown today due to "substantial crack" - "The Crumbling of America" in action!

[ddeclue]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jKyoC4YBedFBIc1mxXDq-6kkIMvgD9AJ0TOO0

San Francisco bridge shutdown spills into workweek
By SUDHIN THANAWALA (AP) – 14 hours ago

SAN FRANCISCO — It will be trains, boats or roundabout routes, all of them packed, for Bay Area commuters as the long weekend shutdown of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge spills into the workweek.

The bridge was scheduled to reopen Tuesday morning after crews discovered a crack Saturday. The target has been pushed back to 5 a.m. Wednesday, said Randy Iwasaki, director of the California Department of Transportation.

"We are going to need your patience for one more day," Iwasaki said Monday.

The 73-year-old bridge, which carries about 260,000 vehicles a day between San Francisco and heavily populated cities to its east, was closed over the Labor Day weekend so a football-field-sized, 3,300-ton section of the eastern span could be cut out and replaced with a new double-deck section. The work was part of a seismic upgrade and had to be completed 150 feet above the ground.

...

We've seen the levees fall in New Orleans, we've seen the the I-40 bridge fall into the Mississippi River, we've seen a great blackout of most of the Northeast that lasted for days, we've had a near catastrophe when a dam failed, fortunately a second dam prevented all out disaster - all in the last few years. We have depression era dams that could fail at any time like the one that will wipe out Nashville if it fails.

Yet we can somehow always manage to cut taxes for the wealthy or buy a billionaire a stadium for his football, baseball or basketball team.

The state of infrastructure in this country is in a shambles and all it takes is a slight push from a natural disaster or other unforseen event and the consequences will more often than not be total disaster - we have no "safety margins" any more.

This Saturday, the History Channel will re-air the powerful documentary "The Crumbling of America" that explores our failing infrastructure and how we are on the brink of catastrophe in any number of cities due to systematic neglect and underfunding of our national infrastructure. Katrina may have been a random storm but the systematic neglect of New Orleans' levees guaranteed that there would be a disaster soon or later. New Orleans was the first city in many decades to have been so wiped out - if we do not dramatically increase our investment in repairing and maintaining and strengthening infrastructure, it will NOT be the last.

We were just damned lucky that the Bay Bridge didn't fall into the bay on a Friday evening rush hour. Who knows if these bridges can even stand up to a 6.5 earthquake any more much less a 7.9?

http://www.history.com/shows.do?episodeId=452430&action=detail

I highly recommend that every elected official whether they hold a municipal, county, state or Federal office watch this documentary and take the lesson to heart.


Doug D.
Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology,
Class of '89

[Cant trust em]

1. This is old news already. The bridge is open. nt

[ddeclue]

2. It's NOT posted in "Breaking News"...

I'm trying to connect the dots to the bigger picture, not bring you breaking news but thanks for playing..here's the home edition of "failing infrastructure" for you to play with...

:eyes:

[Book Lover]

5. I think you'd be better off with a different example to prove your point

The crack in the old bridge was found while the whole crossing was shut down so the temporary bypass bits could be slotted in. There are (sadly) many examples of rotting and neglected infrastructure projects that you could use to solidly make your point. This isn't one of them.

[ddeclue]

7. Actually YES it WAS a VERY good example..

They were just lucky to have found it - the bridge was scheduled to reopen when they found it at the last moment.

[Cant trust em]

6. Sorry, didn't mean to be a parade rainer. But there are probably better examples.

I apologize for my curt response.

[BlooInBloo]

8. No-one likes having the wind taken out of their sails, I understand. But... um....

The bridge is *fixed*.

Seems to me that if one wanted a good example of ""The Crumbling of America" in action", one would not stick with a *fixed* bridge as one's example.

[ddeclue]

10. Umm YEAH...that's NOT the point Bloo...

anyone think about the hundreds of thousands of cars that were crossing that bridge in the last year or so before they closed it for repairs?

Do you think that crack SUDDENLY appeared or do think it might have been "significant" for some time?

Now COMBINE that crack with a 6.5 earthquake in a Friday rush hour and it's Katrina all over again except that it is 400 to 500 dead Californians at the bottom of the bay instead of drowned in New Orleans.

Accidents and disasters almost always result from a "weak link" in a system that gets pushed over the edge by some "unforseen" (well not really to prudent observers) circumstance.

I've thought this through Bloo.

[BlooInBloo]

13. (shrug) It's your example... Rock on.

[Book Lover]

3. And the morning commute went very smoothly (nm)

[BlooInBloo]

9. Now *that* doesn't even pass the laugh test.

:P

[Book Lover]

12. Ok, OK

I can't even think of anything snarky in reply. :-)

[Oregone]

4. And I thought some stellar weed would of shut it down first

[ConcernedCanuk]

11. Silly USAmericans expect their government to take care of them

.
.
.

WARS are more important than taking care of infrastructure, citizens/veterans health, decent housing, and so on . . .

WHEN WILL YOU USAMERICANS GET IT???

You are just servants to the War-Machine . . .

Think about it.

No other nation on Earth is so mixed up in every one else's business.

Sumthing to ponder . . .

:freak:

[marmar]

14. The Bay Bridge is cursed.

nt

[ddeclue]

15. Do tell....

why?