The bridge you are looking at in the picture is the Millau Viaduct in France.
Why are you looking at a picture of a bridge in France, you may be sitting there wondering.
Well, stay with me and all will become clear.
A few minutes ago I got an email from Beale. Beale is part of the Fort Worth Underground. When someone sends me an email and does not tell me that it is not blogging fodder, I make the assumption that the email is blogging fodder.
Apparently Beale had a conversation with a member of the Fort Worth Underground named Bert. In that conversation Beale and Bert wondered about the per square foot cost of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.
We begin with Beale's comment about Bert's TRV cost analysis...
I have never looked at the TRV on a Sq. Ft. basis. So, if they sell the land to developers... man are the taxpayers taking a hit!
What follows is what Bert told Beale about the cost of the TRVB, plus another cost comparison...
Beale,
Apropos of our brief discussion today about my contention that the $909,000,000 (and counting) of our tax dollars that the Trinity River Vision is spending to connect 34 acres with Downtown equating to $26,735,294 per acre or a mere $613.75 per square foot of dirt . . . here is a rough cost comparison of the Phyllis Tilley Bridge to an engineering marvel in France, the Millau Viaduct, which I am not saying is justifiable but, it did break new ground in engineering and can be used by everyone . . . in their daily pursuit of business, etc.
Regards, Bert
Fort Worth has done it again!
The Millau Viaduct in France is the highest bridge in the world (see it on Google), an engineering wonder that bridges the Tarn valley between Clermont-Ferrand and Beziers which will shorten the route from Paris to the Mediterranean on the French freeway, A-75, for all those hard-vacationing Parisians.
Designed by Sir Norman Foster, Architect, Manchester, England
Weight 400,000 tons
Height 1,125' (50' taller than the Eiffel Tower)
Length 8,071'
Width 104'
Deck 839,384 square feet
Cost $523,000,000
Cost per square foot = $623.00
The Phyllis Tilley Memorial Bridge for pedestrian and bicycle traffic only, in Fort Worth, TX is a financial head-scratcher that spans the mighty Trinity River between its west bank and its yonder east bank in Trinity Park.
Weight ?
Height Not very
Length 384'
Width 10'
Deck 3,840 square feet
Cost $2,500,000
Cost per square foot = $651.00
Designed by Miguel Rosales, Architect, Boston, Massachusetts
How do we keep getting horse traded into these incredibly expensive and unnecessary projects on the banks of the Trinity River by the likes of Bing Thom who brought us the indefensibly expensive Downtown Junior College at $1,500 per square foot and Miguel Rosales who has now bested the cost per square foot of this Anglo/French bridge?
_________________________________
Well, I've only been in this part of the planet for a short time, but I think I know part of the answer as to why Fort Worth keeps getting horse traded and hoodwinked.
The town does not have a real newspaper. Except for Fort Worth Weekly.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram does not perform a normal newspaper's function as the Fourth Estate, acting as the people's advocate, acting as a watchdog on the lookout for crooked politicians and crooked political deals.
Examples?
Rather than point out the obvious ridiculousness of the assertion that a sporting goods store would be the #1 tourist attraction in Texas, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram trumpeted over and over again what a great thing it was for Fort Worth to have a Cabela's come to town and bring with it millions of tourists a year.
Not only did Cabela's not become the #1 tourist attraction in Texas, it soon was not even the only Cabela's in Texas. And now the Fort Worth Cabela's is not even the only Cabela's in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
Have you read anywhere in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram a fessing up to their part in the Cabela's tax break gaining con job?
An extremely lame, obviously doomed to fail, public works project called the Santa Fe Rail Market opened with the Fort Worth Star Telegram telling its readers this little boondoggle was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and Pubic Markets in Europe and would be the first Public Market in Texas.
After the failure of the Santa Fe Rail Market have you read the Star-Telegram fessing up to misleading its readers regarding the Santa Fe Rail Market?
What did you think of the investigative reporting job the Star-Telegram did into the credentials of J.D. Granger when a corrupt act of nepotism saw him appointed as the person in charge of running the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle?
Yes, you're right, you read no investigative reporting in the Star-Telegram regarding J.D. Granger's qualifications.
You also did not read an outraged editorial in the Star-Telegram regarding the obviously ridiculously nepotistic appointment of Fort Worth's Congresswoman, Kay Granger's son, J.D., to a job for which he had zero qualifications to run a project from which his mother stood to gain financially.
Have you read an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram regarding how much it cost the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle to build a little lake in which the Cowtown Wakepark could operate, which J.D. Granger trumpeted as a great feat, making the sport of wakeboarding available to all of Fort Worth's citizens?
When the Cowtown Wakepark suffers its inevitable failure, will you read an article in the Star-Telegram about the failure, like you read regarding the Santa Fe Rail Market and Cabela's failures?
That's right, you read nothing in the Star-Telegram examining those previous failures and you will read none when the Cowtown Wakepark fails.
If Fort Worth had a real newspaper, something like the Cowtown Wakepark, Santa Fe Rail Market, Cabela's tax breaks and the Trinity River Vision would never get off the ground, because an informed public would not put up with the foolishness.
With no real newspaper, most of the Fort Worth public is oblivious to the foolishness.
Oblivious to the foolishness, while Rome burns, I mean, the Trinity River Vision parties. In private. And in inner tubes floating on the polluted Trinity River.
Which is another thing. What did you think of that investigative reporting the Star-Telegram did into how safe it is to float in the Trinity River?
I'm sure that report is coming soon....
2 comments:
Are we talking Euros here? What decade? Have no idea what this cost comparison proves. You need to do some more homework.
The Tilley bridge is 14' wide and 12' clear between railings...please redo your math. Are you coming to the bridge opening Saturday the 25th of August at 10 am...It might be interesting to check the end product. Thank you.
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