news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_localsfo/20101108/ts_yblog_localsfo/471
san Jose Mercury News - Mon Nov 8, 12:00 am ET Mike Rosenberg, Bay Area News Group Call it the million-dollar crack. Bay Area transportation officials said Friday it cost $1 million to fix the 10-inch crack found under the San Mateo Bridge last month, and the price tag may climb. Revenues from bridge tolls paid by drivers around the Bay Area will fund the repairs, at a clip of $100,000 per inch. With tolls at $5, it would hypothetically take 200,000 drivers crossing the region's seven state-owned bridges to pay for the fix. A report from the agency that manages the bridges says the crack, discovered during a routine inspection on Oct. It took four days to complete the work, while the lane above the crack was closed to traffic for safety reasons. Caltrans and its contractor conducted the work, but the agency's spokesman for the project referred comment on Friday to the Bay Area Toll Authority, which pays for maintenance of the region's bridges. A toll authority spokesman did not return calls for comment Friday. A report from toll authority Executive Director Steve Heminger outlines the transfer of funds to pay for the crack repairs but does not explain why it cost so much. It does say, however, that Caltrans still does not know the cause of the damage and may have to do more work on the area depending on the results of its investigation. The report said the crack was found in a "wishbone-shaped support beam" that was added to the bridge as part of a seismic retrofit project completed in 1999. It says crews "worked around the clock" to fix the damage, which was found under the far right westbound lane just east of the high-rise on the Peninsula side of the 7-mile span. Heminger's report says the money spent on the repairs won't affect funding for other projects the agency is working on, such as retrofits to the Bay, Dumbarton and Antioch bridges.
Report Abuse America, as we've known her, is crumbling before our eyes. The San Bruno gas pipeline explosion and this crack are examples of what is happening daily in our country. Our infrastructure, that was our pride and portal to becoming a leading country, was meant to last 50-80 yrs. Without maintenance our roads, bridges, dams, levies, gas lines, water lines, sewage, electric poles/lines/grid etc will become the ruins of tomorrow and leaving us all behind as well.
Report Abuse A 10 inch crack needs a hole at each end of the crack and stiched in between. If you want it to cost alot let the state take care of it. If you want it done right get a private contractor to do it.
Report Abuse So a 10 inch crack cost a million dollars-plus to fix. Meg Whitman wasted $160 Million trying to buy the position of Governor here. The 80% of people still employed rely on the San Mateo bridge to get to work. We spend a million bucks to fund ONE SOLDIER in Iraqistan for one year---and after 9 years, we're still getting hammered.
Report Abuse So a 10 inch crack cost a million dollars-plus to fix. Meg Whitman wasted $160 Million trying to buy the position of Governor here. The 80% of people still employed rely on the San Mateo bridge to get to work. We spend a million bucks to fund ONE SOLDIER in Iraqistan for one year---and after 9 years, we're still getting hammered.
Report Abuse I suspect that fault creep or something like that might have made the crack. But as far as spending on this fix, when you have a leak in your roof, you fix it right? Not doing that makes repairs that much more expensive down the road, or perhaps even a disaster occurs. Most people come here to live from out of state and suffer sticker shock. Even in this recession, things are still comparitively expensive and so are wages. It used to be a two lane draw bridge and then in the 60's they built a whole new 4 lane bridge with a high span where the ships come through.
Report Abuse Have Mitch McConnell and the GOP pay for it. How about Bush and Cheney, who got us into spending money on useless wars. Spend money here on infrastructure, not on some toilet countries.
Report Abuse This is what happens when government work is contracted out to greedy for-profit corporations. We should have state workers build and maintain all roads and bridges. There is no reason why any corporation should make profits off of the taxpayers.
|
http://csua.com/feed/