Bridge vs. no bridge

I guess I both agree and disagree with this editorial in today's Daily News.

On one hand, it does seem foolhardy to spend $550,000 to re-open a bridge for a few months before it gets torn down and replaced.

On the other hand, and although it's difficult to measure, how hurt would businesses in the Port and in Amesbury and in Salisbury be if the bridge remains closed over the summer?

I don't believe I have been to Amesbury once since the bridge was closed last November, after a barge hit it.

It is difficult in these economic times to judge whether businesses that are blaming the bridge closing for slow business are assessing the situation correctly - but I'm sure our local delegation is getting an earful from the businesses (in fact, I know they are).

And if we can spend $500,000+ to re-vamp a smallish rectangle of grass across from City Hall, why not use a little more to open the bridge, even if temporarily? It's only $1 million ... what's $1 million to us, eh?

I think a lot more people use the bridge than ever venture into Brown Square ...

Hooray!

And not a moment too soon ... the Rte. 1A bridge re-opens on Monday, according to this story in the Daily News.

I can't wait ... wow, my weekly trips to Gloucester shortened by at least 15 minutes and the trip down/over will be interesting again to boot.

I'm psyched.

Now if we could just get the Hines Bridge fixed ...

Yikes!

Speaking of bridges, here's a blurb from today's New York Times (in its entirety):

Bridge Collapse Is Laid to Design Flaw

By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: November 14, 2008

The Minneapolis Interstate bridge that collapsed Aug. 1, 2007, dropping 108 feet into the Mississippi River and killing 13 people, had cracks in its welds and rust in many places, the staff of the National Transportation Safety Board said. But building up to a conclusion that is not so obvious and not likely to go down well in all quarters, the board’s engineers said those problems had nothing to do with the collapse. Instead, they said, the cause was a design error made in 1965 and a national bridge maintenance system that was not set up to detect such flaws. The design problem, investigators said, was that gusset plates, the poster-sized sheets of steel that tie the girders together, were too thin and gave way when a contractor put tons of equipment and repair materials over one spot.

Need I add that our own Whittier bridge is of the same design? ... Not to alarm you guys or anything ... there's no equipment on there at the moment ....

Bridge notes

Hey, the good news is that the Route 1A bridge is scheduled to re-open next month.

The bad news? I guess some barge hit the Hines Bridge yesterday ... oops.

Not to mention the Whittier/I-95 bridge, from which rusted beams are falling (into the river).

View the photo slideshow of the barge and the Hines Bridge here (from the Daily News). I guess now it's slated for early closing - it was going to close next summer anyway for repairs. This was met with a hearty "A-OK." Or not.

Unlike me, the daily has been all over this. Read about it here and here.

This is from the Oct. 3, 2008, editorial (Doesn't John Macone, the editor, live in Amesbury?):

On Wednesday night, state highway officials announced that the Hines Memorial Bridge — the span that connects Deer Island to Amesbury — must be closed for that length of time in order to rebuild it, rebuild the deteriorating stone buttresses it sits on, and build the complicated swing mechanism needed to open the bridge on the rare occasions when large boats go up the river.

Interestingly, it's the swing portion of the bridge that's now damaged, from the barge.

For all you people who don't live here (if any of you are left out there), the bridge is one of 2 that connects Newburyport with Amesbury, across the Merrimack River. And when I say 2, I mean they are there, at the same place, with an island in between.

So we lucky people get to go to Amesbury via the aforementioned Whittier/I-95 bridge, which I avoid like the plague since I wrote a story for the Current about its decrepit state.

The scheduled repairs to the Hines Bridge were supposed to facilitate the repair of the Whittier Bridge (the former to handle increased traffic while the latter was being repaired).

I guess I won't be zipping on up to Cider Hill Farm (in Amesbury) to buy cider for Thanksgiving dinner after all!

But the re-opening of the Route 1A bridge will make my weekly foray to Gloucester a lot more convenient.

All my travels will be southward from now until ... whenever.

High gas prices = lives saved?

I found something interesting in the Flint Journal, gods love 'em.

It would appear that there is a direct correlation between the price of gasoline and traffic fatalities, nation wide. (Read the full story here.)

This year, gasoline climbed over $4 a gallon, and the traffic death toll -- according to one study -- appears headed to the lowest levels since Kennedy moved into the White House.

No, Ted Kennedy has not moved into the White House; they mean JFK, if you can believe that.

The institute's study -- which covers 12 months ending in April -- found that as gas prices rose, driving and fatalities declined. The surprise, said Professor Michael Sivak, author of the study, was the huge decline in fatalities in March and April as gasoline prices surged above $3.20 a gallon.

Based on my own observations, I don't see this. It seems to me that people still drive like maniacs, and there are just as many cars on the road as ever.

But then, I'm not on the road as much myself. There are days when I don't drive anywhere.

Sivak predicts that highway deaths this year will drop below 37,000 for the first time since 1961 if the March and April trends continue. The government motor vehicle death count for 1961 totaled 36,285. The number of highway deaths peaked in 1972 at 55,600, then generally declined over the next two decades. For the past several years, the number has hovered above 42,000 a year.

It seems two demographics most responsible for car crashes - teens and senior citizens - are also the most affected by the high prices of gasoline.

Federal data also show that driving declines have been more dramatic on rural roads, which have higher accident rates than urban highways.

A little know fact is that urban highways, unlike rural roads, are built to handle speeding vehicles. *ahem*

Anyway, it's interesting that with all the highway safety stuff that's always shoved down our throats, all it took was some fiscal mismanagement to solve the problem.

So ... does this mean Bush is really a genius?

Well, the reduction in revenue from the gasoline tax is having an impact, but it seems there is/was a lot of pork in there that can be cut out with no lasting or drastic effects.

As long as the Whittier Bridge gets fixed, that is.

My take on the "Liberator"

I was at Tendercrop today, they had copies of the Liberator on sale, so I bought one. Somehow, I expected something on newsprint (not sure why; maybe because it's something I had thought of).

It's nice that Jim Roy referenced 3 stories I wrote for the Current. Let me clarify:

Minnesota Redux (about the Whittier (I-95) bridge): Our mayor prefaced his comment (about having confidence in MassHighway keeping the bridge open) by saying he was not an engineer, and then followed it up by saying he sees MassHighway crews out there all the time, working on the bridge. Mayor Thatcher Kezer of Amesbury also said the bridge is not in eminent danger of collapsing and got pretty technical about it.

Plum Island Sob Story: The people who bought the house on Plum Island were told by mayor (prior to completing the purchase) that the city would do something to get them access to the property. Now here was an opportunity to slam the mayor (for promising something off-the-cuff and then later realizing he'd opened a can of worms).

I'm Seasick (about mooring fees not being collected): This (and the Karp floating docks debacle) was the Harbor Commission's lapse, not necessarily that of the Harbormaster, Ralph Steele. He, in fact, was quite snarky about the fact that marina owners were being given a "pass" in paying the mooring fees, both in the meeting and when I talked to him the next day. Some long-time members of the Harbor Commission wanted to keep things the way they are. I know, the Harbor Commission is all volunteers - but in at least this case, there seems to be a definite bias towards protecting the people who make a living off the waterfront.

So you see how, no matter what you write, people are going to put their own interpretation on it?

(And despite my talking to Will Courtney about following up on the PI and moorings stories, the Daily News has not done so. The people in the PI case were talking about hiring a lawyer when last I spoke with them ...)

Well, I'm sure I do it myself. So let's see how it goes, shall we?

Michigan: the bridge they can't get right

The Zilwaukee Bridge in Saginaw County, Michigan, I see, is still a joke. If you are inclined, read this from the local rag, the Flint Journal.

When I was a kid, and all the way up to the point at which I moved from Michigan (1985), this bridge and replacement of same was the biggest thorn in the side of travelers to northern Michigan. And I'm not joking - half of southern Michigan went over this bridge nearly every summer weekend.

While it may have seemed like a good idea in the late-1950s, soon after the opening of the (original) Zilwaukee Bridge in 1960 it became clear the crossing would cause more problems then it solved. While the most obvious problems concerned the massive traffic tie-ups on the freeway each time the bridge opened, it also caused problems for traffic on the Saginaw River as well.

The bridge was only 150 feet wide and several ships actually hit the bridge, causing damage and additional tie-ups on the freeway as well. Top top it off, shipping traffic actually quadrupled in the years after the bridge was completed and the back-ups on the freeway reached three to four hours in duration. The worst back-ups, of course, occurred during major holiday weekends and during the fall hunting season.

I cannot tell you the number of hours I sat in a hot car on a Sunday afternoon after spending a (grueling) weekend with my aunt and uncle in northern Michigan, while that bridge went up - slowly - numerous boats passed through and then it went down, equally slowly.

Less than fifteen years after the original bascule bridge was opened, the decision came to replace it with a high-level bridge ... The final bridge design selected and constructed is a post-tensioned, segmental, box girder bridge and work on the new structure commenced in late-1979 and was projected to cost approximately $77 million (not counting approaches and ramp work) ... when the bridge was approximately half-complete, a major construction accident halted all work in August 1982. (Source: Michigan Highways)

Now the bridge is causing more problems.

This from the Flint Journal: The bridge's northbound lanes are closed because the state agency suspended a $3.3-million expansion bearing replacement project on the bridge in April after Williamston-based Midwest Bridge Co. workers cut reinforced steel bars buried in concrete. Officials say original construction plans did not show the bars. The northbound lanes on the 8,000-foot-long, 125-foot-tall span have remained closed since. It will take several weeks to fix the bridge, officials said.

I think this bridge, and any other bridge they put up there, is/will be doomed to failure. I suggest a huge ramp ...

Should we be alarmed?

I covered the latest monthly meeting of the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce this week for Merrimack Valley Magazine and came away from it - well, amazed. State Treasurer Timothy Cahill told the group that the per capita, per person average spent on lottery tickets per year in MA is $700. The national average is $170 per person and the next highest amount nationally was $300 per person. There is one lottery machine for every 175 people in this state.

"It's just a fact," Cahill said to me later. "People in Massachusetts love the lottery."

Well I guess so.

When he announced the figures, there was an audible gasp from the audience.

At a previous meeting I attended, the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce, State Sen. Susan Tucker said that there are a disproportionate number of lottery machines in places such as the less affluent sections of Lowell.

I don't know where I stand on the state-sanctioned gambling issue. Where does everyone else stand?

On another note, Cahill also said - and I don't think this has been reported anywhere - that he is looking to borrow against future federal funds to repair 10 bridges that need high-cost repairs, including our own Whittier Bridge on I-95. If anyone recalls, there was a story in the Newburyport Current and Amesbury News when Cahill ruffled feathers with his (perhaps) implication that the bridge was about to collapse. (The bridge is of the same design as the one that collapsed in Minnesota last year.)

"I think it's a great way to access federal money and not impact the budget right now," Cahill said. "It's vital to get these projects done."

The state, Cahill said, gets 80% reimbursement from the feds but would not be able to access the money until 2015.