Building The World's Longest Floating Bridge In Four Years While In Fort Worth America's Biggest Boondoggle....

Today we continue with our popular series of bloggings about feats of engineering, mostly of the bridge sort, with project construction timelines of four years, give or take a year or  two.

Looking at these various feats of engineering has been prompted by our befuddlement regarding the construction of three simple little bridges being built over dry land in Fort Worth, Texas, with those three simple little bridges having a four year project timeline.

The bridge you see here, under construction, in a photo screen capped from the WSDOT SR 520 Floating Bridge and Landings Project website, will be the longest floating bridge in the world upon completion.

The SR 520 bridge floats from Seattle on the west end, to near Bill Gates' home, in Medina, on the east side of Lake Washington.

As you can see, the SR 520 bridge is being constructed over water, not dry land.

The Goobers responsible for foisting on Fort Worth the building of these three simple little bridges have actually claimed they are building them over dry land so as to simplify engineering and cut costs. When the actual reason is there are insufficient funds to build the three simple little bridges in a timely fashion.

Fort Worth's three simple little bridges are part of what local congresswoman, Kay Granger, thinks is the biggest urban water construction project currently underway in North America. That urban water construction project is known as the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision Boondoggle, also known as The Boondoggle, also known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The current price tag for The Boondoggle's underfunded project is around a billion dollars. The Boondoggle started off costing a couple hundred millions dollars. And then Kay Granger's son, J.D., was hired by his drinking buddy, Jim Oliver, to run the project, which soon had The Boondoggle sponsoring inner tube beer drinking parties in the polluted Trinity River, a wakeboard park, a drive-in movie theater, a restaurant, an ice rink, a beer hall and other wonders in addition to those bridges being built in slow motion.

The Seattle zone's SR 520 Floating Bridge Project is currently slated to cost $4.65 billion.

So, how is this expensive bridge building project funded? Well, let's look at the WSDOT website and get that information.....

Financial Information
This project is funded by a variety of state and federal sources, including SR 520 tolling that began in December 2011.

Imagine that, the money is coming from state and federal sources, which I suppose makes sense since it is a state highway connecting to a federal highway. And a toll has been charged to those crossing the existing bridge since December of 2011.

Fort Worth voters approved building a multi-purpose arena by voting yes to a one dollar toll to those renting a livestock stall in the new arena. How is that project coming along? Is there a project timeline for the arena project?

I wonder if a Seattle area congressperson's kid was hired to direct the SR 520 bridge project so as to secure those federal funds? I suspect not. What with the project appearing to be well underway, that and I think doing such a thing is illegal in progressive, democratic, non-oligarch parts of America.

Now, on to how long til the SR 520 Floating Bridge is ready for drivers to float across it. Back to the WSDOT website  for project time line information...

What is the project timeline?
Late 2011 - Began pontoon construction in Tacoma.
Early 2012 - Began anchor construction in Kenmore.
Spring 2012 - Began bridge construction on eastern shore of Lake Washington.
Spring 2016 - Anticipated date to open new floating bridge to drivers.
Late 2016 - Anticipated date for removal of the existing floating bridge.

Okay, Spring of 2012 bridge construction began from Bill Gates' side of the lake, with the bridge anticipated to be open to drivers in the Spring of 2016.

Four years to build the longest floating bridge in the world.

Over water.

Can anyone point me to a link to a TRWD webpage, or a TRUCCPIVB (Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision Boondoggle) webpage where we can glean any financial or project timeline information?

Like, what is the total number of dollars, both in salary and perks, paid so far to Kay Granger's son for mismanaging America's Biggest Boondoggle?

Four years to build the world's longest floating bridge in a progressive, democratic part of America. Four years to build three simple little bridges, over dry land, connecting the mainland to an imaginary island in what is not a progressive, democratic part of America.

One would think the locals would catch on that something ain't quite right with doing things the Fort Worth Way of having a big town run by an oligarchy. One would think the locals would get fed up and insist some changes be made, like starting with the firing of the local congresswoman's son from a job it is now quite clear he was not qualified for, that is, unless, maybe, the locals are perfectly okay with living in the town where America's Biggest Boondoggle is located....