[emersonbiggins]

Despite what we perceive the future will be, I'd almost guarantee the replacement for this failed 8-lane bridge will be a 12-lane bridge.
Hey, all the projections point to more traffic...

So, the new 10 lane bridge opened today. It does have room for a couple of light rail lines, though.

Drivers waved at each other and snapped photos as a procession of vehicles moved across the new span before dawn today.

By Staff, Star Tribune

Traffic is moving across the new 35W bridge that opened at 5 a.m.

The procession was led by representatives of agencies that were the first responders in the bridge collapse: fire, police, Hennepin County and North Memorial. They were followed by MnDOT trucks with sturdy, wide bumpers that kept drivers in line. The procession rarely went over 10 mph.

Vehicles from the south crossed the 10-lane bridge first.

Drivers spaced themselves three across, and stopped at the middle.

Then drivers from the north side moved forward. When drivers on the north and south side reached the middle of the bridge, both sides continued across the span.

Some drivers could be seen waving at each other through windows and sunroofs as they honked horns and snapped photos.
...

Star Tribune

[Tanada]

Having spent a half an hour of my time to track down a post I made last spring related to the beginning of the Obama Administration I finally found it, trapped in the middle of another massive merged thread.

Now I am all for meging threads on the SAME topic, and while you could make a claim for the idea that Infrastructure of bridges and water systems are both infrastructure they sure as heck are not the SAME.

Bridges carry people and goods, water pipelines carry water. If you are going to merge these two together you might as well add in oil pipelines, gas pipelines, refineries, sewage treatment systems, seaport/riverport/lakeport/airport's too.

My point being, I like the idea of merging the zillion water/sewer threads, that makes good sense. And merging the road/bridge/highway threads. And merging the seaport/riverport/lakeport and shipping threads. BUT mashing them all together and calling it Infrastructure makes finding posts difficult and makes reading the thread even more difficult.

[emersonbiggins]

AFAIK, this thread was merged months ago. While I do tend to agree with your assessment re: water/sewer AND roads/rail/bridges in separate threads, I think the solution (at this point) would be to start another thread to deal with utilities only, and I will gladly edit this thread title to reflect that difference.

[emersonbiggins]

Good article on China's recent leap forward in highway and rail infrastructure building; from this graphic, it certainly seems like the Eisenhower Interstate Highway Program on steroids.

China’s Route Forward
Wu Hong/European Pressphoto Agency

China is investing billions in commercial and commuter rail lines like this one in Jiaozhou, in Shandong province.

By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: January 22, 2009

GUANGZHOU, China — In an effort to hold back the domestic effects of the global downturn, China is starting to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on new highways, railroads and other infrastructure projects.

The stimulus plan, one of the world’s largest, promises to carry the modernity of China’s coasts deep into the hinterlands, buying the kind of great leap forward it took the United States decades — and a world war — to build, and priming China for a new level of global competition.

As President Obama and Congress draft an $825 billion stimulus plan for the United States, China is already two months into its effort. And while Democrats have put aside calls for big transportation projects, with the House bill allocating less than 5 percent of spending for the construction of highways, rail lines and mass transit programs, China is furiously pouring concrete and laying rails.

A $17.6 billion passenger rail line across the deserts of northwest China, a $22 billion web of freight rail lines in Shanxi province in north-central China and a $24 billion high-speed passenger rail line from Beijing to Guangzhou here in southeastern China are among the biggest projects. But extra spending is being planned in practically every town, city and county across the country.
...

nytimes

[Tanada]

Based on that it appears that China might not be growing this year but they will still be consuming a lot more than they did 5 years ago even without any more growth.

If China contracts to say, where they were in 2004 they are still a major consumer nation.

[Keith_McClary]

Having spent a half an hour of my time to track down a post I made last spring related to the beginning of the Obama Administration I finally found it, trapped in the middle of another massive merged thread.

Now I am all for meging threads on the SAME topic, and while you could make a claim for the idea that Infrastructure of bridges and water systems are both infrastructure they sure as heck are not the SAME.

Bridges carry people and goods, water pipelines carry water. If you are going to merge these two together you might as well add in oil pipelines, gas pipelines, refineries, sewage treatment systems, seaport/riverport/lakeport/airport's too.

My point being, I like the idea of merging the zillion water/sewer threads, that makes good sense. And merging the road/bridge/highway threads. And merging the seaport/riverport/lakeport and shipping threads. BUT mashing them all together and calling it Infrastructure makes finding posts difficult and makes reading the thread even more difficult.

NO, NO, NO, STUPID, Ad hom deleted..

Would you merge T-Rex and daffodil DNA?

Most of these threads our esteemed moderators spend their time merging would quickly sink into the slime on the bottom leaving those worthy of survival floating on top. But our esteemed moderators seem to be not Darwinists but Lysenkoists

[dolanbaker]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20572014

A major road tunnel has collapsed in Japan, trapping a number of vehicles and leaving seven people missing, local media reports say.

Several people are thought to be missing after a stretch of the tunnel, 80km (50 miles) west of the Japanese capital Tokyo, collapsed.

A lot of Japanese infrastructure is getting quite old at this stage as much of it was build over 50 years ago.

edit: I thought that I'd added this to a "Infrastructure failure" thread, but that has been merged into something slightly different.

[SpringCreekFarm]

Tanada Wrote in the Fiscal Cliff Thread...

Ah there is the rub! You can have electrified rail without having high speed rail, just about every commuter train is or could be electrified within months and putting up catenary towers to wire long distance cargo train traffic makes a lot more sense to me than building high speed rail. We could electrify every mile of track in the USA in a couple of years, and adding electric wire pickup equipment to existing locomotives would not be horribly difficult, they already use electric motors powered by diesel engines now. You could even leave the diesel engines in place so that they can keep moving if the power goes out in a section of track.

This is a great idea it would allow some real stimulus the economy and along with rebuilding other infrastructure, put more Americans back to work. I was going to comment on the safety of a third rail out in the country but I re-read the post and see that you suggest towers and overhead wire.

Perhaps in the east a high speed rail could be implemented to handle alot of the east coast commuter traffic.

[dolanbaker]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22650268
Part of a road bridge has collapsed into the Skagit River in the US state of Washington.

Vehicles and people were thrown into the water after a section of the Interstate 5 highway collapsed at about 19:00 local time (02:00 GMT).

State officials said three people were rescued and there were no fatalities.

The four-lane bridge is near Mount Vernon, about half way between the state's main city Seattle and the Canadian city of Vancouver.


The cause of the collapse is not yet clear.

[Tanada]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22650268
Part of a road bridge has collapsed into the Skagit River in the US state of Washington.

Vehicles and people were thrown into the water after a section of the Interstate 5 highway collapsed at about 19:00 local time (02:00 GMT).

State officials said three people were rescued and there were no fatalities.

The four-lane bridge is near Mount Vernon, about half way between the state's main city Seattle and the Canadian city of Vancouver.


The cause of the collapse is not yet clear.

Based on news reports this morning from CNN a semi truck hauling an oversize load struck the box frame bridge structure and the impact separated the span from the support column. They have stated that 70,000 vehicles per day were using this bridge and will have to be routed off the interstate for months until it is repaired or replaced. The bridge is north of Seattle, Washington but I am not sure how far from the city it is.

[dolanbaker]

In a way, it's good to hear that the bridge was "bashed" rather than failing due to lack of maintenance.
Still a major disruption though.

[Subjectivist]

The bridge is very near Mount Vernon, about an hour north of Seattle. A lot of traffic normally uses I-5 to get over the Skaget river. Now it has to take about a five mile detour to get over the river on side roads before getting back on I-5. No word yet on how long repairs will take yet.

[Subjectivist]

An old off ramp on I-75 in Cincinnatti, Ohio collapsed last night while being demolished killing one worker and smashing up a semi truck injuring the driver.

The "catastrophic pancake collapse" happened about 10:30 p.m. as a crew prepared for demolition of the old Hopple Street overpass, according to a statement from the City of Cincinnati. It was part of the old northbound off-ramp to Hopple Street. The new bridge is now open and remains open.

As the old bridge collapsed to the ground, a semi driver crashed into the rubble almost simultaneously -- some of the debris still falling onto the front of the semi.

The city said it would launch an investigation of what caused the collapse. According to an Enquirer review of federal bridge inspection data, the bridge did not appear to have any structural problems.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2015/01/19/bridge-collapse-75-south/22031429/

[Newfie]

I495 inWilmington was closed because the piers were tilting. Tilting was because a contractor piled some dirt near the foundations on soft soil.

From wiki....

On June 2, 2014, the bridge over the Christina River was closed after it was discovered that four support columns were tilting.[27] I-495 was closed to traffic between the DE 9A and 12th Street interchanges. DelDOT officials at first said that the bridge would remain closed indefinitely.[28] They later announced plans to have the southbound side of the bridge reopen by Labor Day, with the northbound side to follow by late September.[29] The southbound lanes reopened on July 31,[30] a month earlier than expected, and the northbound lanes reopened on August 23.[31] During the closure, traffic was detoured onto I-95, and several major roads in the Wilmington area experienced increased traffic congestion.[32]

[onlooker]

I thought this situation merits its own thread. The US infrastructure as many are aware is in poor shape and every year getting worse. So on this thread we can record some of the incidents arising from this troubling phenomenon. I include this first post about lead found in the water of many schools in the US. Youth are particularly vulnerable as their brains are still evolving and lead can impair their brains. http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/2016 ... of-schools

[Subjectivist]

Onlooker, you should watch this.

http://youtu.be/pducRLyDmiY

[Newfie]

Try this one on.

I find it pretty accurate.

http://www.washingtonian.com/2015/12/09 ... r-outages/

By the early 2000s, workers began to notice a growing disregard for safety throughout Metro. “We’d report [safety violations] and then nothing would be done,” says Sherman Johnson, a WMATA mechanic from 1983 to 2010. “The [work order] would be closed, indicating that the problem had been corrected, but then you’d go and check and most times no one had even been there, let alone fixed anything.”
Meanwhile, management focused on making sure employees wore their uniforms correctly and used Metro-issued microwaves to cook food instead of their own. “Things are falling apart and you’re worried about a microwave oven,” Johnson says. “I mean, it was just dumb.” Accountability for day-to-day repairs had all but vanished: “Consciously or subconsciously, everyone at Metro knows they’ve got a job for life,” he says, “unless they sit there and smoke crack in the middle of the platform.”

[onlooker]

This issue deserves a thread of its own
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... astructure