An article I saw yesterday on the online version of CNN, titled Italy's incredible 'floating ship' bridge reaches for the sky caught my eye. And then upon reading the article what I read instantly provoked the urge to compare this Italian bridge building with Fort Worth's inept attempt to build three simple little bridges over dry land.
With those three simple little bridges over dry starting their Fort Worth construction in 2014 with a TNT exploding ceremony, with a then astonishing four year project timeline. And it is now 2020, and still no bridges completed.
Are those irresponsible for this Fort Worth mess still trying to sell the embarrassingly stupid propaganda that the bridges are being built over dry land to save time and money? When there was never gonna be any water under those bridges til a cement ditch was dug under them with polluted Trinity River water diverted into the ditch.
Anyway, those hapless Fort Worth bridges came to mind last week when Fort Worth's Mr. Bobalu emailed asking if I have heard anything of late regarding the status of those pitiful Fort Worth bridges.
Mr. Bobalu was an early victim of what has become America's Dumbest Boondoggle, having his property stolen via eminent domain abuse over a decade ago.
If taking Mr. Bobalu's property was justified as being for the public good, which is the legit use of eminent domain, is it not disturbing, the fact that, a decade later, the public has yet to see any good come from this ineptly implemented project? Shouldn't there be legal remedy after all this time and the obvious fact that the property was not taken for the public good.
I told Mr. Bobalu I have heard nothing about those bridges, for quite some time, and that I suspected most everyone is more focused on other more immediate concerns, like navigating a pandemic. I think I also mentioned looking forward to Kay Granger being booted out of Congress by the incoming, upcoming Super Blue Wave Tsunami ripping the Republican party to smithereens and into the dustbin of history.
And that one can assume that upon losing her job that Kay's son, J.D., would also lose his high paying job, currently overseeing flood control efforts in an area which has not flooded for well over a half century. And paid well over $200K a year to basically doing nothing, for years now.
So, I read this article about the new bridge in Genoa, Italy, with the new bridge replacing the Morandi Bridge which catastrophically failed on August 14, 2018, killing 41 people, and Fort Worth's hapless bridge building came to mind.
Some lines from this CNN article about the building of this new Italian bridge which are not what one might read about Fort Worth bridge building...
That the replacement has arrived less than two years after the disaster is something of an achievement. It was constructed rapidly, in a country rarely considered an exemplar of efficiency. Some of the most challenging work was carried out amid Europe's worst coronavirus outbreak.
If Italy is rarely considered an exemplar of efficiency, how is Fort Worth considered? Okay, I guess the reality is that extremely few people consider Fort Worth about anything. But, efficient sure is not a word one would use to describe Fort Worth.
And then there is info about the cost of this new Italian bridge.
The new bridge was built by Salini Impregilo, an Italian construction company, and Fincantieri, a state-owned shipbuilder. The project cost 200 million euros, about $220 million, not considering the cost of demolition of the Morandi bridge, which cost another 90 million euros, or about $98 million.
How many dollars have been spent so far on those three pitiful little Fort Worth bridges? Is it over $200 million yet? Or more?
And this about the Genoa, Italy bridge building project timeline...
"Normally it would take three to three and a half years to design and build a bridge of this size. This one took a little over a year," says construction manager Stefano Mosconi, who added that up to 1,000 people were working on the project at the same time.
Anyone seen 1,000 people working on Fort Worth's imaginary vitally needed flood control and economic development project, which is how the project was sold when it came to stealing property by abusing eminent domain?
A couple more sentences which give us a clue as to how this feat of bridge building engineering, over water, in Italy, was accomplished in such a short time, whilst Fort Worth flounders trying to build three simple little bridges over dry land...
Piano says that the project attracted a high level of expertise, which makes it less surprising that it could be achieved in such a short time. "It's not a miracle. It's just what happens when competence wins over incompetence. Italy is a special country, with capacity to do things. Work on the site never stopped, continuing at night with tasks deemed compatible with noise regulations.
Competence winning over incompetence. What a concept. Anyone ever heard J.D. Granger speak and think to themselves, now, there is a boy who inspires confidence with his competence. Has Fort Worth been able to attract even a medium level of expertise to help build three simple little bridges over dry land?
Now, for a look at this new Italian bridge, built in a little over a year, over water, actual water...
Maybe Fort Worth could hire the Italians who built the above bridge in such a short time to come show Fort Worth how to do such a thing? I wonder if any Genoans are bragging about this being a "signature" bridge? With "iconic piers"? I would hazard to guess not, whilst in Fort Worth how many times have you heard those pitiful little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island as being "signature" bridges? With iconic "v-piers" making the pitiful little bridges somehow unique when in reality their design looks like an ordinary freeway overpass.
I do believe pitiful is the right word to use when describing the Fort Worth bridges.
Pitiful "signature" bridges....
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