Don't Miss Saturday's Fort Worth Ribbon Cutting Bridge Ceremony

Saw that which you see above, this Thursday morning, on Twitter, brought to us by the good people at Panther Island - Central City.

Way back in 2014 there was a TNT exploding ceremony to celebrate the start of construction of three simple little bridges over dry land, destined, it was hoped, one day to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

These bridges are part of what is known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, or, more commonly, as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

And now, in 2021, seven years after 2014, one of those bridges is going to have itself a ribbon-cutting ceremony this coming Saturday, as in July 17, at 9 in the morning.

It is not known if any TNT will be exploding, but the Fort Worth Herd (that's about a dozen longhorns who live in the Fort Worth Stockyards) will be in attendance, entertained by a Mariachi Real de Alvarez & Fort Worth Ballet Folklorico.

We assume one of the entertainments is a mariachi band whilst the other are some sort of Mexico themed ballet dancers.

Is it normal for a big city to have a ceremony like this for the completion of a little bridge which took seven years to build? We think not. 

America's Biggest Boondoggle has been panhandling for years trying to extract money from the more prosperous parts of America to fund Fort Worth's flood control economic development scheme, where there has been no flooding for well over half a century.

How much money have America's Biggest Boondogglers wasted on things like bridge ribbon-cutting ceremonies, propaganda signage, concerts, river floats, fireworks, design mistakes, roundabout artwork and other money wasting items, whilst asking America for more money?

And why is Kay Granger's unqualified son, J.D., still being paid well over $200K a year, for year after year after year, as this poorly planned, ineptly implemented, public works project the public has never voted for, limps along, with little to show for the effort and money spent, except for things like three simple little bridges which look like freeway overpasses?

It's a mind boggling boondoggle...

Why Wasn't The Golden Gate Built Over Dry Land To Save Time & Money?

I saw that which you see above on Facebook. A lady standing on the running board of an old car, in San Francisco, with the Golden Gate Bridge, under construction, behind her.

According to the caption the year was 1935, with the new bridge to be completed in two years. It took four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge, in total.

Four years..

Over water.

Fast moving, deep water, subject to strong tidal currents.

I don't know why San Francisco did not employ the time and money saving Fort Worth method of bridge building by draining all that water and building the bridge over dry land.

Methinks if Fort Worth tried to build an actual feat of bridge building engineering, such as the Golden Gate, even if Fort Worth began building in 1933, the bridge would still not be completed by 2021.

Fort Worth can't even seem to manage to build simple little bridges over dry land in a reasonable time span.

We blogged about this recently in Another Opportunity To Drone On About Fort Worth's Visionary Bridges To Nowhere, comparing the two town's signature iconic bridges, with one town's bridge being actually iconic, called Golden Gate Bridge, as opposed to the other town's being imaginarily iconic, called Panther Island Bridge...

Another Opportunity To Drone On About Fort Worth's Visionary Bridges To Nowhere

Well, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram seems to be providing a plethora of goofy things to talk about the past several days.

What you see above is a screen cap of part the front page of the Star-Telegram on this final Saturday of the 2021 version of June. An invitation to watch drone video of a completed Panther Island bridge.

As you can see, this is quite a feat of bridge engineering you are looking at. Years in the making, as in around seven years, give or take a month or two. There is no town in America which would not be super proud to have such an amazing new bridge to grace their cityscape. Look at the fine detail in the finishing touches of this completed Panther Island bridge. The landscaping is stunning.

And when that ditch is ever dug under the bridge, and lined with cement, then filled with water, well, people will come from all over the world to eye witness this marvel.

There really are not too many towns in the world which can dig a ditch, do some river diverting, and declare an island has been created. And see it as a vision.

Now, there have been some naysayers who have scoffed at the Trinity River Vision spokespeople, like J.D. Granger, spouting that these are signature bridges being built, which will become iconic symbols of Fort Worth. Now that we see the reality methinks an apology is owed to J.D. and his ilk who made the signature bridge claims. These beautiful bridges are likely to be emulated all over the world. 

And look at how this newly completed bridge leads directly to the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. There will need to be a viewing platform at this location so all the tourists which descend upon Fort Worth can take a photo of this iconic scene.

Now, there are towns other than Fort Worth which have iconic signature bridges associated with their skyline. San Francisco comes to mind.

Let's compare the two, the San Francisco signature bridge and skyline, and Fort Worth's....

It's hard to decide which is the more beautiful, more stunning, more scenic. I suppose, proportionally speaking, it might be said the San Francisco bridge matches the quality of that town's skyline, and likewise with the Fort Worth bridge matching the quality of that town's skyline.

You can sure see why the federal government is gonna jump at the chance to funnel a lot of funds to Fort Worth to complete this visionary flood control and economic development scheme, what with the amazing results already brought to fruition in only a few years, well, most of this century...

Fort Worth Opens One Of Its Bridges To Nowhere Over Dry Land

 

Yesterday a text message from Elsie Hotpepper pointed me to a video clip of a news segment on NBCDFW.

The news was that one of Fort Worth's pitiful bridges to nowhere is finally connecting vehicular traffic from Fort Worth's mainland to Fort Worth's imaginary island.

As you can see, via the photo above, the bridge was built over dry land. With construction beginning way back in November of 2014, with an even then astonishing four year project timeline, longer than it took to build the Golden Gate, which we have mentioned multiple times, and is also mentioned in the NBC story.

The above screen cap is from the Fort Worth Business Press article about this epic accomplishment.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram also had an article about the bridge opening. And in typical Star-Telegram fashion reading it caused my eyes to roll.

For instance the first paragraph...

With no fanfare, the White Settlement Road bridge near downtown opened to traffic Friday, more than six years after Fort Worth dignitaries gathered for an explosive ceremony to kick start construction of Panther Island.

So, the first paragraph mentions there being no fanfare to mark the bridge opening. And then several paragraphs later we read this...

When Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger and others gathered to celebrate the official start of the project in November 2015 with a ceremonial explosion, the bridges were expected to open between 2017 and 2018, according to Star-Telegram archives.

First off, I must be extremely clairvoyant because on Tuesday, November 11, 2014 I blogged the following a year before the Stat-Telegram thinks it happened...

A Big Boom Begins Boondoggle Bridge Construction Three Months Late.

I have on multiple times verbalized one of the reasons for my disdain for Fort Worth's sad excuse for a newspaper is the fact that I was not long in Texas, not all that familiar with Texas, or Fort Worth, when I would read something in the Star-Telegram which I knew was not correct. It happened so many times I got tired of pointing out the errors.

And I have mentioned multiple times that in all my years reading the Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Skagit Valley Herald, Burlington Journal and Bellingham Herald, covering an area with which I was quite familiar, I do not ever recollect reading something I knew to be an error.

Someone needs to purge those referenced Star-Telegram archives. Apparently they are worthless. According to this Star-Telegram article the reporter learned from the archives that the ceremonial explosion was in November of 2015, with the bridges expected to be open between 2017 and 2018.

Nope, way back in 2014, when that start of construction explosion ceremony was already three months late, the project timeline was four years to complete the three simple little bridges being built over dry land.

The rest of that paragraph with the erroneous timeline information...

Design issues held up construction and their opening was pushed to 2019. Then project officials said the White Settlement bridge would be finished by late summer 2020, but the date was pushed back again to the end of last year. COVID-19 and construction delays pushed the date into 2021 with speculation during Trinity River Vision Authority board meetings that White Settlement would open in February or March. TxDOT put the opening date in “early 2021.”

Now that you can see a photo of one of these bridges completed, it must puzzle anyone living in modern parts of America, or the world, how in the world this could take so long to build.

Design issues? The Star-Telegram has no investigative journalists doing what is known as investigative journalism, so we have never learned what these design issues are, and why they caused such an epic slowdown of construction.

The Star-Telegram has also never investigated what it is that Kay Granger's son, J.D., actually does for the Trinity River Vision Central City Panther Island District Vision which warrants paying him over $200K a year, plus perks, plus also paying his wife a healthy salary.

Looking at that completed bridge, am I the only one who wonders how a ditch can now be dug under the bridge, lined with cement, and then Trinity River water diverted into the ditch, thus making the imaginary island?

You in the rest of America, the more prosperous parts of America, did you know Fort Worth has been begging for federal funds for years now, for this ill begotten, ill conceived, ineptly implemented project?

The Army Corps of Engineers has told Fort Worth they will not be a part of this project, or approve of any funding, until Fort Worth pays for a feasibility study.

Which Fort Worth refuses to do.

Refuses, most likely, because some saner heads know such a study will determine the project is not feasible, and is certainly not needed for flood control in an area which has not flooded for well over half a century...

New Fort Worth Panther Island Bridge Propaganda Nonsense

Saw that which you see here this morning on the front page of the online version of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Anyone who has any awareness of the Fort Worth public works project which has become known simply as The Boondoggle would easily guess what someone with that awareness would think when seeing the article's headline of A Panther Island bridge in downtown Fort Worth may be done sooner than expected.

Done sooner than expected? Those three simple little bridges being built over dry land began construction with a celebratory TNT explosion way back in 2014.

Over half a decade ago.

With an, even then, bizarrely long four year bridge building project timeline, for three simple little bridges, built over dry land.

Four years is longer than it took to build the Golden Gate Bridge, over actual deep, fast moving water. It is difficult to find any engineering feat of significant bridge building, anywhere in the world, which has taken longer than four years.

And here we have Fort Worth's newspaper of record telling its readers that one of those bridges may be done sooner than expected.

In the article we learn that that sooner than expected completion is the middle of 2021.

Here is the paragraph where we learn that completion date info...

Work on the North Main Street bridge, one of three needed for the Panther Island project, may be done by the middle of 2021, Doug Rademaker, a senior project manager for the city, told the project’s board of directors Wednesday. Rademaker wouldn’t put a firm end date on the bridge construction, but said based on the work already finished it appears to be significantly ahead of the its projected December 2021 completion date.

Significantly ahead of its December 2021 completion date? 2021 is 7 years after the bridge construction began, with a then four year project timeline. How can a phrase like "significantly ahead" be used to describe this?

Another doozy from this article...

Traffic may be allowed on the bridges before they’re completely finished.

Traffic on unfinished bridges. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

The following paragraph in this latest Star-Telegram propaganda article about The Boondoggle is another head scratcher...

Once scheduled to open in 2017, the bridges were delayed by design issues, and officials have pushed the completion date back several times.

What? Once scheduled to open in 2017, a mere three years after that TNT explosion? Design issues pushed back the completion date several times? The Star-Telegram has never investigated and explained to its readers precisely what those design issues have been.

Design issues with simple little bridges being built over dry land, which look like freeway overpasses?

 What are those design issues?

Don't the people of Fort Worth deserve and need to know what the design issues have been with those bridges they may one day be driving over, even before the construction is completed?

So perplexing that something like this goes on and on and on, with no real end in sight. Still not funded, awaiting magic money from the future, for a project which those who foisted it on the town claimed was a vitally needed flood control and economic development plan.

Soon to enter the third decade of that imaginary "vitally needed" project not being anywhere near completion, not even able to build three simple little bridges in a timely fashion...