I use to enjoy going over and under it greatly.
ML/NJ
The answer is obvious to anyone not voluntarily blinded and not asking for permission to see things as they are rather than as they’ve been instructed. Among many things, money spent on empire-building or other foreign ‘aid’, and money spent on those who consume more than they produce, and who multiply their numbers while being provided for, is money that is not spent on infrastructure. No need to learn from the fall of Rome. Just open your eyes and look around.
When it begins to fall apart more dramatically, then public outcry will cause it to be built or abandoned. Perhaps some public transport inspector will cite it as unsafe for usage and a year or two on non usage will cause some interest in such a huge capital cost item — but not until that sort of shake up will you see such a large bridge replaced in the Obama Economic Stagnation.
Obi the Boy Wonder just peed away $900 billion in the last 2 years to stimulate his political pals.
Too bad there weren’t any “shovel ready” infrastructure projects needing money at the time.
/sarcasm
Someone needs to tell the folks in Albany that if the Tappan Zee goes bye-bye, then the only way for folks from all points West to get to NYC and Long Island would be to go through (and spend money in) NEW JERSEY. Where, by the way, the gas is about 20-40 cents a gallon cheaper.
So where is the money from the $8 toll going?
Oh yeah - public union pensions...
I use to enjoy going over and under it greatly.
Long live the Tappan Zee!
There are a number of design options being looked at, one is a tunnel option using the sunken tube method. This would leave the existing bridge in opperation until construction is completed.
A example is the Fort McHenry Tunnel, this is a sunken tube tunnel.
NY’s infrastructure is just a jobs/graft source for the relevant insiders. The structures’ importance to the non-insiders is only relevant insofar as that can be used to squeeze more funds from the taxbase.
Here's a clue, from 2010....
(New York) State put freeze on hiring, then added 51,464 people
David McCullough wrote in the preface to “The Path Between the Seas”, about the building of the Panama Canal, that “these things just don’t happen”.
To build great, and today I guess mediocre works, takes will and vision. Both these qualities are choked by the bureaucratic and regulatory nature of our time.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
only when the bridge collapses with a school bus load of children will pols do something.
"Jawohl!"
Granted a lot of china men are buried under it's tracks, but it was built
The damn bridge is a toll bridge, let the frigging owners rebuild it and leave the tax payers out of it.
A friend of mine is an ironworker who worked on the Tap for two years.
His advice: Take the Beacon Bridge (I-84).
Here’s why building ANYTHING in NY is a nightmare:
1. The unions - union workers are masters of working the system and will add 50% to the projected cost through slow downs, replacements, etc. I once worked on a union job where the pipefitters would work all day installing pressure gauges on a boiler (a job that should have taken one hour), then 5 minutes before the end of the day, they would use their pipe wrenches to smash the gauges. Next morning they would report “vandalism” and wait four hours while a replacement gauge was delivered. Then they would take until the next day to finish installing the replacements, then smash those, and next morning report “vandalism.” Anytime you deal with union labor, expect 50 - 100% or more overruns.
2. Politics - the politicians get votes by awarding contracts to their buddies or influential companies. It’s a feeding frenzy with the taxpayers on the hook for the food.
3. Enviro-Nazis - they are the a*$holes who live in NY City and consider themselves “Oh so concerned and responsible about our environment..”. Never mind they consume more energy, fill more landfills, use more water, and generate more pollution than most people on Earth...it’s because THEY REALLY, REALLY CARE!!! They will delay the project for decades.
4. The “Intellectuals” - they know better than everyone else and they cannot see why we need to allow more cars to travel around, why we need a bridge, why we can’t swim across the river, or let’s build a bicycle path across the river - it’s cheaper, better for the environment, etc.
The article makes a great point - they built the original bridge in very little time and it has lasted 56 years. How many of you would trade off a fast, cheap bridge that will last ANOTHER 56 years for all of the BS they will go through to build a bridge acceptable to everyone at an affordable price?