Posted on 03/29/2024 9:22:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Could it really take twice as long and four times as much money to replace the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge than it did to build it in the first place?
The Key Bridge was built at a cost (adjusted for inflation) of about $200 million. Replacing it could take a decade and cost $400 million to $800 million dollars, according to experts in what has become a dismal field.
“To actually recreate that whole transportation network" could take a decade or more, structural engineer Ben Schafer told USA Today on Wednesday. Huge projects, Schafer said, now take “rarely less than 10 years."
Well, they didn't use to.
By comparison, the Apollo program that put a man on the moon required seven years, eight months, and 23 days. And — this is the really exciting part — everything about Apollo, from the massive Saturn V rocket to the "tiny" flight computer, had to be created from scratch. Those seven-and-a-half years included a monthslong delay following the tragic loss of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee during an Apollo 1 dress rehearsal that ended in a deadly crew capsule fire.
Construction began on the Hoover Dam on July 7, 1930, and five years later, it was complete. It started generating electrical power on Sept. 11, 1936 — exactly six years, two months, and four days after the first shovelful of dirt was moved.
The Empire State Building was fully erect (heh) after just one year and 45 days of construction.
But those were all 20th Century projects, back when we used to get things done. Welcome to 21st Century America, where everything is needlessly time-consuming, expensive, stupid, or (most likely) all three.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Due to trade deficits, likely a majority of the containers were empty.
Oh, here we go. Another “Big Dig” project. Need lots of time for grifting and political chest-thumping.
Hit it in one spot and it all fell down , D’oh
Why don’t they just fix the one they have. The offshore petroleum industry has the stuff to j́ust pick all the pieces up, repair and rehang it. All they need is to rebuild the support the ship hit, which could be done while they’re fixing the rest of it.
If they follow the Federal Highway Regulations that will be attached to the money, they will have to prepare an environmental impact statement, environmental justice report, Tribal consultations if any claim cultural impacts, coordinate with the state, county & local transportation organizations, then there is the artwork (highway beautification), Coast Guard and Corp of Engineers, and then there are all of the public meetings and hearings for all the stakeholders.
It will take 3-5 years just for that crap to complete.
I built 3/4 of a mile of minor arterial in a small city n Eastern Washington and that took from 2004-2007 because we (the city) had a $1 Million direct grant from FHWA. It cost that million to complete the studies and none of it actually went into the construction of the project.
Philo Farnsworth figured invented the television as a teenage farm boy in the 1920s (he actually finished the first working prototype at 21).
Today even STEM students are so scientifically and mathematically illiterate they demand to know why we don’t power jets by putting solar panels on the wings. The rest don’t know what gender they are.
What about the name Islamic Trannie Ripken Robinson Bridge.
It’s taking more than five years to add ten miles of two new lanes on to I-26 in Asheville N.C. I say it would take at least ten years to replace that bridge today. Are there any people around who know how to dig tunnels, after all this is supposedly a strategic port. The bridge protection they had couldn’t stop a party boat.
Is lent there a tunnel under the Chesapeake Bay already?
Could, maybe. DeSantis did this in less time to rebuild hurricane damaged bridges in Florida. Key is getting buy-in, funding, and all with endless committees, union mandates, and so forth.
We have a crisis of competency in this country. To compare…. The Kerch bridge in Crimea is 12 miles long (the longest bridge in Europe) and has 4 road lanes AND 2 rail lines and went from concept to inauguration in 3 years. Thats just not possible here anymore for a host of reasons. The Hoover dam and Golden Gate day are past.
Plus, it will probably be even UGLIER!!
Spangladeshis?
Don’t forget — whoever wins the contract will have to through a myriad of DEI requirements.
The original project didn’t involve dei.
Incredible — he had the basic idea worked out when he was 15. He compared the process of rasterizing an image to plowing a field.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Farnsworth
“What in the world happened to this nation?“
Off the bat, I’d say communism.
Musk's The Boring Company can do it wholesale...
A primary reason for the bridge was to handle hazardous and large size truck traffic that could not negotiate the existing tunnels
10 yrs.for a 1.5 mile bridge? .15 miles (~800 feet) a year?
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