"Will this nonsense never end?"
And by nonsense we are talking about the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle nonsense, and the nonsense the Fort Worth Star-Telegram publishes in propaganda mode about that nonsense.
You can read this latest piece of Star-Telegram propaganda yourself in When will those Panther Island bridges be open? Not as soon as commuters might hope.
This latest Star-Telegram propaganda article included a photo of one of the Boondoggle's pitiful bridges, now looking like a bridge, with a deck on top of the V-piers which have been awaiting such for years. This photo is buried beyond the end of the article. Why? I don't know. Maybe because the photo is evidence of how pitiful these simple little bridges are.
Below is the photo to which I refer....
Even though construction on the above bridge began with a TNT exploding ceremony way back in 2014, with a then astonishing four year project timeline, the current propaganda has the bridge not completed until the next decade.
Can you believe the Fort Worth propagandists have actually tried to describe this as a signature bridge? You know, a bridge of the iconic symbol sort, like the Golden Gate Bridge, which actually took only four years to build, over actual water, with an actual purpose for building it.
This latest Star-Telegram sort of makes mention of the impending forensic audit of that which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle. But, no mention is made of the J.D. Granger Scandal, which is believed to be the main thing which prompted that impending forensic audit.
There is propaganda about why the V-pier design was chosen, but no mention of how J.D. Granger caused this design and thwarted a better design which the Army Corps of Engineers approved, and would have paid for. Late last year that part of the TRV Scandal was blogged about in America's Biggest Boondoggle Unravels As Trinity River Vision Scandals Grow. This latest Star-Telegram propaganda repeats unsubstantiated nonsense about why that V-pier design was chosen.
Now, let's go through this latest bit of Star-Telegram propaganda and comment as we do so...
Piers sprout from the ground like concrete plants on North Main and Henderson streets north of downtown Fort Worth. On White Settlement Road, the bridge forming over dry land looks almost complete.
The above opening paragraph seems almost poetic. Piers sprouting like concrete plants. And now we know that almost completed bridge is the one on White Settlement Road.
Continuing on...
But the three bridges over the Trinity River connecting the rest of Fort Worth to the yet-to-be completed Panther Island are now between a year and two years behind schedule, construction managers say. Once slated to open by 2019, delays with design and construction have pushed back the opening dates to mid-2020 to 2021.
Yet to be completed Panther Island? Really? Can we please see the project timeline and plan for completing that imaginary island? Between a year and two years behind schedule? Wait. Didn't we just read those bridges began construction with a TNT exploding ceremony way back in 2014. We are currently in 2019. 2021? That is seven years later than 2014.
Continuing to continue on...
Delays were first caused by the unique V-shape pier design, which engineers needed to test, and construction of each pier has further slowed the project.
Yeah, those are some unique pier designs, the likes of which the world has never seen. Requiring engineers to test those unique designs, designs apparently of a real complex nature, hence the long delays, unlike simple bridge projects, you know, like the Golden Gate Bridge, built over swift moving deep tidal currents.
Continuing...
The bridges’ construction is managed by TxDot with the city of Fort Worth as the local partner. They’re part of the larger Panther Island project, a flood control effort that will re-channel the river and create an 800-acre island ripe for redevelopment. The project carries a total cost of $1.16 billion with more than $65 million going to the bridges.
Oh yes, Star-Telegram, let's repeat the flood control propaganda yet again. Flood control in an area which has not flooded for well over a half century due to levees long ago built and paid for. A flood control effort? Just an effort? A try? An attempt? To re-channel the river? That proposed re-channeling is a cement lined ditch running under those three pitiful little bridges, such as the one you see above. Can you picture this? No? I can't either.
Continuing on...
The design focuses the aesthetics on the area below the bridge deck — where the riverwalk would be — leaving the top of the structures for automobile use. TxDot offered to build the three bridges just like Fort Worth’s West Seventh Street bridge, which features bold, lighted arches. The transportation department pledged to do all the design and construction in-house, get the work done by 2016, but Panther Island partners, including TxDot and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, determined the design wouldn’t work with the bypass channel because it relied on too many piers in the water.
Oh yes, looking at that almost completed West Settlement Road bridge you can see how stunning the aesthetics are of the design. You can just imagine that riverwalk under the bridge. And, what a concept, leaving the top of the bridge for automobile use. How innovative. And the Star-Telegram repeats the nonsense that the West 7th Bridge design would not work, falsely claiming that design has too many piers in the water. When the actual West 7th Bridge has zero piers in the water, which we documented months ago. Just a sec, I will go fetch a photo of the West 7th Street Bridge...
Do you see any piers in the water? To my eyes the above looks like a unique bridge. And one can almost envision a riverwalk under the bridge.
Continuing on...
In the beginning, bridge construction was delayed several years from a potential 2018 completion date partially because TxDot inspectors wanted to take a closer look at the design of the piers to ensure they would support the bridges’ weight, the Star-Telegram reported.
Construction was delayed several years from a potential 2018 completion date? Because inspectors wanted to look closer at the design to ensure they could support a bridge? As reported by the Star-Telegram? Really, Star-Telegram, you are trying to sell this bit of revisionist propaganda? The actual fact of the matter is construction of two of the bridges began soon after that TNT explosion. And then halted. With the halt going on and on for months, and then a year, or longer, with moss growing, weeds sprouting, re-bar rusting, and no article in the Star-Telegram explaining to that newspaper's few readers what the problem was. It was several years after that TNT explosion start of construction that the Star-Telegram finally addressed the obvious reality that something was dire wrong with that which has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.
Continuing on I am skipping several paragraphs of more nonsense excusing the bridge construction delays. And then we come to the final two paragraphs, with the first one...
TxDot officials have said building the bridges over dry land before the channel is dug saves both time and money. The federal portion of the project — digging the channel — cannot be done until the bridges are complete.
Oh, it is now TxDot officials who are saying the bridges are being built over dry land to save time and money? At that TNT explosion back in 2014 it was everyone from Kay Granger to her hapless offspring, to Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price (and the Star-Telegram) repeating the idiotic nonsense that those bridges were being built over dry land to save time and money.
As we have repeated dozens of times, there was no option but to build those pitiful bridges over dry land, because there never would, or will, be water under them until that cement lined ditch is dug, with the Trinity River diverted into that ditch. And anyone with an iota of common sense can intuit it would have made more sense to integrate the ditch digging with the bridge building so as to facilitate the seamless construction of both. As it is, it seems likely if that ditch ever is dug it is going to present engineering problems digging under those then existing bridges.
And now the final paragraph in this latest piece of Star-Telegram propaganda...
In the meantime, the Trinity River Vision Authority, an arm of the Tarrant Regional Water District overseeing the project, has put out requests for proposals from consulting firms to independently review Panther Island’s management, budget and construction, among other things. A firm should be selected by March 7 with the review done by June 19. No cost has been set for the review.
And, just like all things associated with what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle, this supposed 'independent review' must be of little import, hence the long long time generating it, with a supposed review done date conveniently after the upcoming TRWD board election.
Like Elsie Hotpepper says, over and over again, "Will this nonsense never end?"...
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