J.D. Granger Spews Trumpish Bridge Propaganda Exposed By Captain Andy

On the day of my return from a couple week escape from Texas, Elsie Hotpepper sent me a link to an article in the Fort Worth Business Press titled TRV bridge construction begins anew.

I read the article to find myself pretty much appalled and once again thinking to myself that the sad town of Fort Worth really does suffer from having no legitimate newspaper doing actual investigative journalism.

To recap, several years ago, with much explosive fanfare, the Trinity River Vision Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision had a big celebration to celebrate the start of construction of three simple little bridges which were to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

I do not remember how long there was some constructive effort before the bridge building ground to an unexplained halt. A halt which was reported in what passes for a newspaper in Fort Worth, to be expected to last only a month. That month soon stretched to over a year.

No Fort Worth local news source seemed interested in finding out the reason for America's Biggest Boondoggle's bridge building problem.

And now in the Fort Worth Business Press we learn that building those bridges is supposedly once again underway.

However, Fort Worth's Captain Andy drove by the "construction" zone where activity was alleged to have resumed, to find that nothing is happening, at least such as what is visible to a passing eye. Maybe a microscope could detect some bridge building activity.

Captain Andy took a few photos of the bridge construction ghost town. But, before we get to those let us look at what J.D. Granger had to say about this embarrassing debacle in the article in the Fort Worth Business Press....

After being on hold for about a year, “the bridge cages here are well underway. We had a tough issue going on with the contractor who was making a lot of design claims and problems with it. Our team, the city of Fort Worth and TxDOT were saying ‘no it’s the way you’re building it,’” Granger said.

“We went ahead and did a [6 ft. tall, 8 ft. wide and 20 ft. long] mockup of it, we cut that section open and sure enough it showed the design was very good. So, with that the bridge contract is now going full speed once again,” he said.

Now, spend some time digesting the lunacy of what J.D. Granger is telling you in the above two paragraphs.

Bridge cages are well underway? What does that mean? They had a tough issue with the contractor who saw problems with the design? Which had J.D.'s team telling the contractor the problem was with the way the contractor was building it? And so J.D., and his team, built a mockup of the bridge piers, which they cut open to show the design was very good, which he claims has the bridge contract once again going full speed?

Going full speed ahead, except Captain Andy detected no sign of anything happening.

The FWBP article also claimed...

They expect to begin pouring concrete piers for the North Main bridge in mid-July, and plan to continue pouring one new pier every two weeks until all bridges are complete.

I have never understood how it is these pier forms, into which concrete is to be poured, are supposed to support a bridge deck. Were massive concrete foundations already in place under the piers? It looks like these piers are being built on the surface, with no foundation. How is a ditch dug under these bridges after they are already built?

So many questions, but never any answers.

And now Captain Andy's photo documentation of the current status of nothing actually happening with America's Biggest Boondoggle's bridge construction.

First off, the million dollar aluminum homage to a trash can, installed at the roundabout which is near the only one of the three bridges to get to any state of construction. This is among the locations where, years ago, the Trinity River Vision abused eminent domain to take property, and now years after that theft, pretty much nothing has been done with the property which was taken for a bogus ill-considered, badly planned, ineptly implemented flood control economic development project.

A drive by somewhat closeup look at one of the wooden pier forms looking no different than it has looked for years. After concrete is poured into these forms, supposedly a bridge deck will be added.

Below we see two even closer looks where nothing appears to have changed where J.D. Granger claims the Boondoggle's bridge building is now going full speed again. Claimed by Granger to be going full speed again when the bridge building has never gone full speed. Is Granger a fan of Trump? Is he emulating Trump's penchant for spewing falsehoods?

How is it that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram does not cover this debacle? Asking questions which need to be asked? Or editorializing that it is long past J.D. Granger's expiration date?

We surely now know the answer to that question asking what could go wrong with putting an unqualified son of a local congresswoman in charge of a public works project for which he had zero training. Was it really worth it, giving this boy this job, just to motivate his mama to secure federal funds to keep her offspring gainfully employed til he reaches retirement age?

And, if I have said it once, I have said it more than once, Fort Worth suffers due to the town not having any actual legitimate newspaper...