Posted on 03/30/2024 2:31:48 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore came as quite a shock. After a massive container ship struck one of the bridge’s pillars, the entire span quickly fell apart, costing several lives.
It’s hard to overstate the bridge’s importance, particularly for the automobile industry. In addition to handling 11 million vehicles per year, it provided a vital way for trucks to access the Port of Baltimore while avoiding the dense city core. The impact on the region will be felt for months, if not years.
The question is, what now?
President Joe Biden has said that the federal government would foot the entire bill for rebuilding the bridge and demanded that Congress make it happen.
While the collapse came as a surprise, nobody should be surprised that Biden’s immediate response was to call for more federal spending.
Since taking office, Biden has signed trillions of dollars of spending increases into law and imposed more than $700 billion of additional costs through administrative decisions.
This reckless approach to budgeting has whipped up inflation and driven the gross national debt to $34.6 trillion—about $265,000 for every household in the country.
Fortunately, it’s possible for Washington to help Maryland rebuild the bridge without driving the nation deeper into debt.
First, all officials must be clear that the cost of rebuilding should mostly or entirely fall on the owners and operators of the ship, even if the incident was purely accidental. While litigation on such an important matter could take time to resolve, taxpayers shouldn’t be responsible for the cost of a privately caused disaster.
Second, there’s no need for Congress to authorize new funding to begin the process of clearing the channel and rebuilding the bridge . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...
Or build more freeways around it.
The question is, what now?
NOTHING, It’s way to expensive and time consuming to try and rebuild. File lawsuit after lawsuit to force compliance with all new environmental regulations. The last thing a Proud Democrat State needs is a Million Dirty ICE powered vehicles being delivered to their State for distribution to Republican States.
Gasp! Horrors!
If we can’t have new funding, we won’t be able to pay biden his bribe.
I think 20 years of environmental impact studies needs to be conducted first, and the impact on climate change of course, along with making sure no native American burial sites are disturbed or any rare snail endangered.
They will break the bank. Everyone is going to get paid. That’s all it matters. Even better if it lasts for 10 years.
That way there are no pesky insurance company investigators turning over rocks and finding icky things.
You can be sure Biden’s cabal will do everything imaginable to make rebuilding the bridge cost way more than it should.
AOC, who has actually been on a boat with one, has recommended replacing it with a flying bridge. Powered by solar energy of course!
Put Trump’s crew on it. They rebuilt a bridge in NYC for half the cost and time that was estimated, and they did a better job.
I think we FReepers saw this one coming a couple days ago.
Hire illegal immigrants at $3.00 a hour?
The Democrat’s Obama clone GOv Wes Moore will have 10 years of grooming and press conferences.
They will break the bank and *not* repair or replace the bridge.
That’s a non starter. The area is too populated. Eminent domain would take decades of court battles.
The Baltimore area was the most daunting challenge when building I-95, the busiest interstate in America.
There are already two tunnels but a bridge in necessary for trucks and hazmat.
The go-around is the Beltway, which was part of the bridge. It’s 40 plus miles around and almost always packed. To add a lane would again take decades.
Smart travelers will take I-81 which is two hours west of Baltimore or travel through Delaware when possible.
Last Wednesday, WAZE took me through Downtown on the surface as the best route. It still took a couple hours.
My recommendation is to make one tunnel commercial vehicles only. The other for passenger. They are on separate highways that are basically parallel.
As far as the bridge, a privately owned toll bridge would be built faster and cheaper.
For the contractor, a $100,000 per day early completion bonus would likely shave months off construction.
another boondoggle, money lost
A more relevant headline for the union/Democrat mob that will try to rebuild is “How to Repair the FSK Bridge in less than 30 years.” If they do that they’ll break Jerry Brown’s record of 30, which, by the way, was also built using bad parts from China.
Call it an ice skating rink. Donald will have it done in a few weeks.
I would think that the cost should be footed by the company that insured the ship
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