Steve Green gets upset about rebuilding something which could basically be rebuilt exactly the same as it was, but won’t.
Could it really take twice as long and four times as much money to replace the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge than it did to build it in the first place?
The Key Bridge was built at a cost (adjusted for inflation) of about $200 million. Replacing it could take a decade and cost $400 million to $800 million dollars, according to experts in what has become a dismal field.
“To actually recreate that whole transportation network” could take a decade or more, structural engineer Ben Schafer told USA Today on Wednesday. Huge projects, Schafer said, now take “rarely less than 10 years.”
Steve gets upset; I don’t. Why not?
Because this boondoggle is located in Baltimore, a Democrat-run shithole which has become a festering boil on the face of civilization, largely due to the fact that it has been run by liberal Democrats and socialists for decades and decades.
Yeah, I know: traffic will be affected badly because the old FSK Bridge carried I-695 traffic around (as opposed to through) Baltimore.
Don’t care. The more it fucks up Baltimore, the better I like it. The longer it takes, the longer the pain will last. The more expensive it gets… well, I don’t care about that either.
Maybe the federal government will spend a little less on foreign aid to (say) Gaza or Gambia or [insert shithole of choice here] instead of on one of our own domestic shitholes. (But they won’t; they’ll just print more money to pay for it.)
I’m sure someone will produce some study or other which will show how wrong my attitude is, that the rebuild will Create Jobs And Feed Pore Starvin Kiddies or some such nonsense; or that the cumulative traffic detours made necessary by this calamity will cost some putative number of billions of dollars etc. etc.
Still don’t care.
The plain fact is that whatever the cost, it will be exacerbated by the over-large and inflated union salaries paid to the workers (Baltimore, duh), and the inevitable delays before the construction ever begins will be because the Greens will have issues about endangering some fucking minuscule / unimportant insect or sea-creature and therefore endless fucking studies will have to be made, and addressed, before the first load of concrete is poured or the first steel girder is welded together.
Did I say steel? Oh yeah, because our steel manufacturing industry has been largely exported to fucking China or somewhere, we’ll have to buy it and ship it all across an ocean or two rather than simply trucking it down from just-up-the-road Allentown or Pittsburgh.
And if those unionized construction workers decide to strike because of [insert stupid reason to strike here] the delay will grow still longer and so on.
Let me reiterate: I just don’t fucking care.
All the unnecessary cost overruns and delays will have been caused by our own sclerotic and self-inflicted regulatory clots in the infrastructure bloodstream, instituted by people who have no idea of consequence other than Harm Done To Mother Gaia (who is a total bitch in any case, ask anyone whose relative was killed during an earthquake).
As a society, we have sown the wind, and now it’s time for that whirlwind to come and blow the whole edifice of bullshit over — or not, in which case the bridge will never be rebuilt.
And I still won’t care.
Fuck ’em all.
“As a society, we have sown the wind, and now it’s time for that whirlwind to come and blow the whole edifice of bullshit over — or not, in which case the bridge will never be rebuilt.”
Say Kim, when I read that aloud it sounds like me – or is it me sounding like you?
Anyway, fok hulle, elk en almal.
PS. I had a colleague from Baltimore at my job in Minneapolis. He was forever whining about how he missed Baltimore. Once I *innocently* asked if he planned to go back. He said something about too many blacks – and he was a leftie.
The FSK bridge project will be the spectacle of a lifetime because the parameters are such it will be a constant string of failures.
Starting with the requirement of diversity hires from one end to the other. $5bil will be the cost if and when it is ever completed.
Diversity Hires will be Butty-Egg-Egg’s number one priority. Hopefully, he will get his ass fired on the 21st of January 2025 and we’ll get a real Secretary of Transportation instead of a clown act.
BTW, Numbah-One rant there Kim.
My assessment as a somewhat local (northern Virginian) is as follows.. I don’t think the bridge rebuilding is going to be the priority. The local politicians just don’t have the political will to siphon off the necessary funds from their favorite DEI pork barrels or force the government machinery to grind more rapidly to make it happen. If a bridge does go up it’ll be a private endeavor and there will be forever tolls to “pay” for it. We have seen just such a model emerge all over the area where the toll operators move in and “improve” a road to enable higher capacity then charge outrageous fees to use that capacity. It is the way of the “new” capitalism where the private sector does things for the pubic sector that the government is no longer capable of for fun and profit.. mostly profit.
That being said, the constituents in Baltimore (the ones that manufacture the votes) don’t care about that particular stretch of road. No what is important to them is that the port is closed, but not for the reasons you would think. They could care less about the guys with hardhats operating cranes and tugs and moving containers around. No there concern is about the other commodity that comes through that port… the drugs! See the distribution network is located in the west and poorer section of the city. The customers creep in from the arteries eastward and creep out the same way. That network is known to all law enforcement throughout the area. Thus some lost roadway on the east side of the city is of little concern to them.
With the port shut down, there is no safe and easy inflow supply chain. I suspect things are about to get really crazy in the city as the supply dries up and all those lost souls aren’t getting their daily. However, the drug cartel is adaptable. I suspect that they will soon figure out how to shift their methods to adapt to this reality and things will go back to normal. Perhaps Richmond or one of the NJ ports will become the new destination for the exotic lifestyle seekers. Or, the politicians will focus with an unusual intensity on getting the port open again. Lets just see what happens..
And like you, I could care less..
Er – more properly:
I couldn’t care less
/grammer nazi
Holy crap -Apologies to all.. just reread what I wrote above – used “there” for “their”, and said druggies creep in from the east when I meant west… I need more coffee..
Your stress is understandable, and forgiven.
I bet the project gets closer to a billion. The Big Dig in Boston has been completed for a while and the lawsuits are probably settled as well. Wast someone at Bechtel/Parsons Brinkeroff driving that boat? this is Baltimore’s entry into the huge super projects of the century.
you nailed some very important points. Does the US have the infrastructure and industry to build this again? On the Big Dig, much of the steel was produced in the United States per Federal requirements. However, it was frequently shipped to Canada to be fabricated into the shapes we needed. Im sure the governments collected their tariffs as the steel crossed the border. How about concrete plants? The ones in Boston would deliver concrete and due to traffic the concrete would be out of specification by the time it came to pour it. Rather than send the rejected load back to the plant for disposal, the truck just went to a different site where it suddenly “passed” inspection.
The big hurdle will be to see if an environmental study is demanded before construction can start and also how that plays out in the courts. We may not get the bridge replaced period or construction may not even start for a decade. That’s just going to highlight the fragility of our infrastructure to hamas, Iran, al queda or whatever those terrorists call themselves today or tomorrow.
The problem with the Big Dig was that it ran through the center of the city. As a consequence, every political pressure group had their hang out for whatever boondoggle that had yet to be funded plus more than a few groups invented for the sole purpose of getting in on the Fred Salvucci gravy train. That’s primarily what turned a $4 billion project into a $ 16 Billion pig fest.
The FSK bridge is a “By-Pass” bridge for the Hazardous cargo not allowed to go through the Tunnel. ( Although now more than a few probably will just reroute thru the tunnel ) so it won’t be as high a priority as it would have been if it carried I – 95.
I agree that it won’t be rebuilt in the original configuration as a steel truss Bridge. It will be done as a Cable stay concrete bridge. Thats Todays preferred major bridge design. It will have fewer Piers and a taller clearence ( So they can bring in even bigger container and RORO ships.)
….. so I’m predicting only a 125% cost overun. $ 2 billion for the $ 800 million Bridge rebuild.
I feel as badly for the cut off citizens of Baltimore as I do for the residents of San Francisco who have to drive by 10 drug stores that have been closed due to heavy looting when they need a prescription filled
In other words, not much
These swamps have been run by Democrats for many decades, and I don’t care about the suffering of their residents
Trump ought to step forward – as he has done on other projects, even 9/11 clean up – bring in his markers with trusted constructors and he’ll have this thing cleaned up and built inside of a year….because…private sector. No graft. Done.
Thing is, the mayor was all proud today at – yet another presser – that crews removed (he had to say it of course) a 200ft section of wreckage to make a “temporary” (gov’t-speak for “permanent”) shipping channel. So, Buddy, have you already hired the engineering firm(s) to redesign the new mid-span (the 700ft ends were left intact, generally), or are you waiting on “officials” to gin-up a graft-ridden contract? How many steelworkers and salvage crews are on site? One? Two? How about a dozen teams with crane barges etc. (they had a crane barge operating in no time after Sully landed on the Hudson). Get it friggin moved along pal, quit farting around trying to hire the Didn’t Earn It cross-dressing crowd with weird hair and a drug problem.