Posted on 01/26/2014 11:08:56 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Edited on 01/26/2014 11:12:17 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Can't post Bloomberg text on here. Follow the linkie.
It was deemed unsafe for earthquakes; the box structure of a cantilever section being too rigid to survive the swing. The Loma Prieta quake that damaged it was a 7.0 with an epicenter sixty miles away. The Hayward fault is just over twelve miles away and is capable of an 8.0.
That's why.
From my review of the photos I could find, the level of penetration into the columns was minimal, at best.
Right, but I still question the acuteness of the urgency - I mean the bridge was many years old in that state so fixing it was necessary but why the sense of rushing it? Smells like some sort of political issue.
The foundation for the old bridge is old wooden pilings sunk into the mud of the San Francisco bay. I’m not ure if the pilings even reached the bedrock.
not SURE.
Fixed it.
The deficiency was identified in 1989. The Hayward fault is overdue to go. If the bridge goes down it would be catastrophic for the Bay Area economy. It's now 2014. That's 25 years. You call that a rush?
He was ordered to ignore flaws in components supplied by a Chinese firm, and not document anything, to avoid evidence that could be picked up by later FOIA requests.
The reason for rushing government construction is that the way contracts are written construction delays almost always cost the government exorbitant claims in additional payments to the contractor. The contractors get administrative costs, lost profits, rental costs of idle equipment that they themselves own, etc. It’s a windfall for them.
I’ve seen it happen time and time again. The contractors’ lobbies and their lawyers are among the best in the country. And they have Congress and State legislatures in their pockets. The laws are written in their favor to prevent them from losing money.
Thanks for the ping!
PING!
The free market runs on self interest through voluntary cooperation and creates wealth. Government programs, initially labelled with a "public good" goal, actually runs on its own self interest through coercion and creates misery and poverty.
Got stuck in rush hour traffic on the lower deck of the cypress back in 1988. Truck traffic on the roadway above caused the lower deck to bounce.
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