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If you thought that the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge was the real disaster, you aren’t familiar with the government.
Stephen Green at VodkaPundit notes that, “Could it really take twice as long and four times as much money to replace the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge than it did to build it in the first place? The Key Bridge was built at a cost (adjusted for inflation) of about $200 million. Replacing it could take a decade and cost $400 million to $800 million dollars, according to experts in what has become a dismal field.”
It’ll get worse before it gets better. And that’s assuming that it ever does. Estimates for the rebuilding time are stretching out to 15 years already. (And remember the reality will always be worse than the estimates.)
“The bridge originally, it seems like it was about five years from breaking ground to opening up. In 1980, when the Tampa [Bay] Sunshine Skyway bridge had a strike and was destroyed, and then rebuilt with a new cable-stayed bridge, that was seven years. I would consider those lower bounds,” Benjamin W. Schafer, a structural engineer who specializes in steel structures and is an engineering professor at the Johns Hopkins University, said. “I think we’re looking at seven-plus, I would guess 10 to 15 years before — I know that sounds crazy — but before we look back over and we see a bridge jumping over the harbor.”
First, we have to discuss who’s paying for it.
“It’s my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge, and I expect the Congress to support my effort,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
Yet the idea has sparked an immediate backlash from conservative spending hawks, who are already up in arms over Congress’s recent approval of a massive 2024 spending package and maintain that Washington simply can’t afford to pile more money onto the national debt.
“Let’s be clear about the tragedy in Baltimore. That bridge didn’t just collapse. There was no earthquake. The bridge was knocked down (apparently) by a private ship that lost control. Shouldn’t they be at least partly responsible for fixing it?” said Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist and Vice President Harris’s former communications director.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Wednesday on MSNBC that she expected insurance payments to cover part of the cost to rebuild the bridge.
It remains unclear how much it will cost to repair the bridge — some estimates put the figure at a whopping $2 billion. But Biden on Tuesday, just hours after the incident, expressed confidence that he can win Congress’s backing.
Biden has provided an initial $60 million to begin clearing the debris. Expect that to be the down payment on a long drawn-out process of filing permits, passing environmental reviews, obtaining DEI buy-in from community groups and politicians, contractors, and consultants looting the giant money box for all they’re worth.
Especially in an incredibly corrupt place like Baltimore.
While the bridge won’t likely be built any time soon, expect there to be some very nice homes being built with that money for everyone involved in the project.
As Michael Caine answered when asked if he’d seen Jaws 4. “I have never seen it but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built and it is terrific.”
The bridge collapse may be terrible, but the houses built with it will be terrific.
A small part of the shallow water eastern section (Oakland side) of the San Francisco Bay Bridge collapsed in the 1989 Earthquake. It took about 25 years and 6 billion dollars before it reopened. I did my best to warn everyone but to no avail. Grift and shoddy Chinese engineering and materials.
My grandfather had done the most difficult part of designing and supervising the deep water western section (San Francisco side) of the bridge back in the 1930s, which survived the earthquake just fine.
I hope you keep his legacy alive for the generations that follow. Men like him are exceedingly rare now.
I assume your grandfather wasn’t Chinese. 🙂
Do they still charge drivers to get into San Francisco but not to leave back to Oakland? I thought that was hilarious when I drove to the airport and back to Modesto about twenty years ago. Back then you could park at tourist sites without having the usual suspects breaking into your car.
This Chinese 2 -3 years to bulid it.
…and collapse tofu-dreg style 2 – 3 years later.
I seem to remember Chinese repairs to the golden Gate Bridge that had to be redone by an American company, too.
Here’s all of the maint. projects on the GG Bridge:
https://www.goldengate.org/bridge/bridge-maintenance/major-bridge-improvements/
Trump would get the job done in three years and under budget…note: Wollman Skating Rick, NYC.
Yep. It seems like all his projects come in early and under budget. The Trump skating rink was delayed for twenty years or something like that before he took control.
The Golden Gate Bridge came in under budget too but that was 1933 to 1937. Major engineering projects and even maintenance are jokes nowadays, and it sure doesn’t help that Alzheimer Joe is Resident of the United States.
A new bridge was constructed to replace an old swing bridge in Surf CIty NC. Incentives were made to get it built quickly and it was done ealry and under budget. I think more time was spent investigating the route of the bridge that was spent in building it. Different construction though– poured concrete, although it was not a simple causeway bridge. It actually rises fairly high to let sailboats pass under it.
Mr. Greenfield speaks of “an incredibly corrupt place like Baltimore.” Of course, that’s a racist statement in “woke” world because many of the thieves are black. Indeed, traffic laws go unenforced in majority-black Baltimore to avoid penalizing “driving while black.” Spread billions of dollars around Baltimore and what you’ll get is an expansion of the “Safe Streets” crime mitigation program where ex-felons are paid a police officer’s salary to “prevent” crime. The police force has hundreds of unfilled positions while “Safe Streets” workers are continuously hired as soon as they complete parole. Yes, Baltimore is populated by incredibly corrupt politicians; Democ-rats to a man (male or female). Is it racist to call Democ-rats corrupt? It is in Baltimore.
Watch “The Wire”
Wait til the toxic chemicals from the breached containers are cited as reason to go even slower pending studies and whatnot.
It’s sad that I have to wonder if they’ll enlarge the base around the piling caps, so a ship running aground can’t take out the bridge again. It’s mostly dumping rocks and dirt, physically relatively cheap, but we’re talking about government. I wouldn’t be surprised if the regulatory expenses for dumping a lot of rocks and dirt into an estuary or bay are most of the cost.
A $200 million bridge, replaced for $400 million to $2 billion, over 15 years. Sounds about right, lol. That’ll grease a lot of lawyer and consultant palms, and build a lot of nice houses, boats, and whatnot. It’ll look like feeding time at a catfish farm. It would be interesting to track the money.
Never heard of the Michael Caine quote, that’s great! Reminds me of an old meme of a little sign on the walkway to a film school building. It said, “If you’re feeling discouraged, just remember, there’s a “Sharknado 3″…”
The Golden Gate Bridge, much more beautiful and challenging in the construction, took less than 4.5 years from start to completion.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Golden-Gate-Bridge
Then Theil rename it the George Floyd Bridge
Sorry. Not GF. This is Baltimore.
Freddie Carlos Gray Jr. is the local hero.
He had more than eighteen arrests.
We all saw this coming.
The Golden Gate Bridge was built in only four years from 1933 to 1937 at a cost of about six hundred thirty million dollars adjusted for today. It’s beautiful and as a suspension bridge, virtually immune to being rammed by a large ship. The base of the North tower is on land and the South tower is in water so shallow a ship would run aground if it attempted to ram it. All that could be done would for one to go under the bridge in the sea lane, turn south, and try to ram it that way. That isn’t going to happen and it would run aground the second it hit.
The Empire State building was built in one year(!) at a cost of about six hundred seventy million today.
Our governments, both state and federal, get more corrupt and incompetent every day, and they’re plenty corrupt now.
Getting this news on Easter after Church sure doesn’t make me happy but it’s necessary to report it. It would be like you getting this news on one of the High Holidays, Greenfield. That’s life, though. We can receive bad news or have bad things happen on any day, no matter how holy, and only fools ignore it.
Christians and Jews both should pray that Trump gets re-elected. He’s no savior but he’s the only chance we’ve got against our overwhelmingly corrupt and increasingly totalitarian and oppressive federal government.
Labor unions will tell you different.
Naturally but a lot of the union workers disagree with their bloated bosses who don’t even work, particularly UAW workers. All these bullshit EV regulations are wiping out their jobs.
The teacher’s union would gladly dance while America burns down. Oh wait, they already are.
AFT and NEA.
They already have match and are torching our children’s future.
I am pleased I do not have kids in public schools.
That’s for sure. It would be a daily effort to deproram their indoctrination. It must chap your ass that you have to pay taxes for schools.
Thank goodness the “undocumented immigrants” have a roof over their head and plenty to eat.
The Golden Gate Bridge was built in the Depression for $35 million ($610 million in 2023 dollars), and was completed ahead of schedule and $1.3 million under budget (equivalent to $28.9 million today).. Completed in less than 4 and 1/2 years. It was funded without a single taxpayer dollar and is still privately owned
Take the government out of the way and it won’t take anywhere near as long
The highly endangered “Baltimore Bearded Clam” and “Maryland Taco Oyster” will prevent the bridge from ever being rebuilt!
I heard those species stink worse than all the others.
Keep the government and the miles of red tape out of it and it could. be done at a fraction of the cost and time. Unfortunately I’m afraid that’ll never happen. They just must get their grimy fingers into it so a bunch of their cronies can line their pockets.
Jill saw the collapse. Her first thought: Kickbacks! Joe: “What’s a kickback?”
It only took 4 years to build the Golden Gate Bridge from 1933 to 1937
The wrangling and boondoggle between all the federal agencies that get involved will take years. The lawsuits between the insurance companies will take years. The design and placement of the bridge will take years. There might not be a country called the USA or a need for the bridge in a matter of years.
I read somewhere that meanwhile they are looking at other ports along the Eastern seaboard.
The Baltimore Port Captain says he’s going to open an alternate sea lane route as soon as possible. We’ll see.
And the ports in New York/New Jersey, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia are all much larger and can handle much more tonnage than the Baltimore port did, which was number 20 in the US. The aforementioned ports are all in the top 10.
One thing for sure if it ever gets rebuilt it will be a whole new design. When you look at the way the whole bridge just “fell down” end to end almost simultaneously that indicates a flawed design.
It was a piece of shit and the Army Corps of Engineers had been warning the state and city about it since it was built.