I Like the New Bridge Design
Image courtesy of the News Journal.
Whenever I go down to Slower..er ah …I mean Lower Delaware to visit my parents, I have to cross this bridge. Since the current bridge is predicted to collapse literally any day now (seriously, it was judged to fail between 2008 and 2012 by the Army Corps of Engineers), I say a little prayer every time I cross it. So they can’t build this new bridge fast enough. The new design looks like a double Rt. 1 / St. George’s Bridge over the canal. Which is fine by me, since I like that design. The old “new” design sucked, since it looks like the bridge over the canal in Chesapeake City, MD.
It will take a while to get used to seeing tall structures of any kind at the beach… one of the attractions at the beach is the sense of expansiveness you get by not seeing that.
Another of the attractions that seems to be lost on some is the laid back slower lifestyle.
I’m just glad they’re getting the damn thing fixed.
You’d better like it – it will cost each Delawarean nearly $50, between the first design, the first (aborted) construction, the demolition, the new design, and the new construction.
Face it, that’s a glaring case of the present administration’s horrible financial management – and your candidate is their treasurer.
it will cost each Delawarean nearly $50
Sorry, you won’t get credited for that answer unless you show your work.
“DelDOT has a $16.4-million design and engineering contract with Figg Engineering Group. The department is looking for firms for a new design-build contract, and a bid will be awarded in the spring. About $8.1 million has been spent to build the approach embankments. About $6 million worth of dirt and work will have to be removed. According to officials, it will take about four months and cost another $2.7 million to remove. ” -1/7/08
“The bridge, which will be constructed by Norfolk, Va.-based Skanska USA Civil Southeast, Inc., is slated to cost about $150 million.” -8/20/08
16.4
8.1
6.0
2.1
150.0
_____
182.6 million
Delaware Population (2006 estimate) – 853,476
Cost per citizen – $213.95
Thank you for correcting my poor math. That bridge will cost each Delawarean at least $213.95 – not including inflation, DelDOT labor to route traffic, and any other incidentals I forgot.
How much did you pay in taxes last year?
Dope.
Money to build the bridge is in place with about 80 percent of the cost coming from federal funds and 20 percent from state funds
capegazette.com/storiescurrent/200808/inletbridgecontract082208.html
Original Cost Estimate:
182.6 Million
Additional Costs:
Original Design Costs – $14 Million
20% of the bridge construction will be paid with federal funds. THAT DOESN’T MAKE THEM FREE – it means Delawareans are paying a fraction of them. So let’s redo the math.
14
16.4
8.1
6.0
2.1
30 (20% of the construction)
_____
76.6 million
Cost per Delawarean – $89.75
Still higher than my guesstimate. Waiting for your share of the tax burden…
And still doesn’t include the incidentals – DelDOT labor, the administrative costs of the five year bid process, the “blue ribbon panels” that made these decisions…
“Face it, that’s a glaring case of the present administration’s horrible financial management – and your candidate is their treasurer.” – Me
THAT DOESN’T MAKE THEM FREE – it means Delawareans are paying a fraction of them.
If we don’t build the bridge, we will still be paying the federal taxes, but our money will be used to build somebody else’s bridge instead.
Wow, actually have to pay money for something! What a novel idea!!!!
Go take a row boat then..
“If we don’t build the bridge, we will still be paying the federal taxes, but our money will be used to build somebody else’s bridge instead.”
Or, they could go toward paying down debt.
VC, no one is suggesting a bridge not be built. Everyone is suggesting that tons of money got wasted building this one. The chief financial steward of the state is running for Governor. He said nothing while millions were pissed away.
RickJ90210:
If you can build the bridge cheaper, why don’t you put in a bid?
yeah, I agree the process should be streamlined, less wasteful, etc, as it should be for all public projects.
Didn’t mean to suggest otherwise….
Tens of millions of dollars were wasted on a design that won’t be used – but was paid for, embankments that were torn down, wasted labor, and other boondoggles. The cost of the bridge has nothing to do with the mismanagement that preceded it.
Rick – Agreed. There was gross mismanagement of this entire bridge project from the start.
Yes. And let’s remember that while all that money on the old design, etc., was being wasted, DelDOT was being run by a Republican, Nathan Hayward.
I still can’t figure out how Hayward and Minner get dressed in the morning without hurting themselves.
Is a bridge to Sussex County the same as a bridge to nowhere?
Another expense that isn’t typically factored in is the money that DelDot paid, or is still paying, State Parks for their loss of revenue while the incompetent assholes unnecessarily used their campgrounds for their construction staging areas throughout this entire engineering clusterfuck. State parks are 60-70% self-sufficient, and the loss of their No. 1 revenue generator cost them severely while DelDot played with their asses. That’s right, you clueless assholes from north of the canal, parks like Delaware Seashore and Cape Henlopen enable shitholes like Lum’s Pond and Brandywine Creek State Parks, Bellvue and White Clay to stay open. The New Castle County state parks are little more than pathetic little parasites on the park system. That’s the way it is, and you can kiss my black ass if you don’t like it.