Monday, May 15, 2017

What Stalled World's First Bridges Built Over Dry Land Connecting To An Imaginary Island?

I saw that which you see here in the Sunday Seattle Times online, and it seemed to fit the category of things I read in west coast online news sources which I would not be expecting to read in a Texas news source about a similar thing in Texas.

Or, in this case, Fort Worth and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Seattle Times article titled World’s first light rail on a floating bridge: For I-90, Sound Transit had to invent ‘a brilliant solution’ is something one would likely not read in the Star-Telegram about something happening in Fort Worth for a variety of reasons.

Has Fort Worth ever been the world's first at anything? Or invented a brilliant solution for anything? Or built a big bridge over a deep body of water?

I guess the Fort Worth Star-Telegram could have an article with a somewhat similar headline to the Seattle Times headline, something like this...

World's first bridges built over dry land connecting to an imaginary island: Stalled because Fort Worth can't invent 'a simple solution'.

How can one part of America manage to build multiple massively big floating bridges over deep water, in a time span of less than four years, whilst another part of America (Fort Worth) can't manage to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island?

With a four year project timeline.

That is no longer in existence because the project has been stalled for over a year.

Stalled for over a year. With no explanation as to what the problem is. And no local newspaper able to task journalists with the job of investigating what is causing a relatively simple pseudo public works project to become known as America's Biggest  Boondoggle?

Those floating bridges you see above connect to an actual island.

Mercer Island.

Site of some of the world's most expensive real estate. Fort Worth's bridges were being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island, which is currently an industrial wasteland, not an island.

Read the article about engineers figuring out how to build the world's first light rail over a floating bridge. Make note of the open transparency. Ask yourself why you never read an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the stalled bridges which has any semblance of the detail you read in this article in the Seattle Times.

I'll copy a few paragraphs from the Seattle Times World’s first light rail on a floating bridge: For I-90, Sound Transit had to invent ‘a brilliant solution’ article to illustrate what I am talking about...

Sound Transit will soon try something unprecedented — building and operating train tracks on a floating bridge.

The work begins June 3 in the center express lanes of Interstate 90, after carpools, buses and Mercer Island motorists are kicked out to make room for light-rail contractors. Passenger service between Seattle, Bellevue and Overlake is scheduled to begin in 2023.

The technical challenges are daunting.

Engineers have to ensure the bridge will remain buoyant when a pair of 300-ton trains pass each other, and that the high-voltage current that powers the trains won’t stray into the bridge’s pontoons and corrode its steel rebar. They spent $53 million just to design the section across Lake Washington.

The most difficult task is adapting the rails to the movements of the bridge.
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Okay, Fort Worth Star-Telegram readers, in the above few paragraphs you have read more detailed facts about a bridge being built than you have ever read in the Star-Telegram about those three simple little bridges which have been stalled, with no explanation as to why, for over a year.

Pitiful. just pitiful....

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