The gang at the very-unofficial ScottForGov.com nailed the bullshit call on the 8-week closure timeframe trotted out by the DOT and dutifully parrotted by the LeftStreamMedia. Word has just come down that the new northbound US-45 span over eastbound I-94, which has been closed since last Friday, will reopen at 5 am tomorrow Friday morning. The Journal Sentinel’s Tom Held amazingly continues to parrot the government li(n)e that it is 7 weeks ahead of schedule.
News flash – as I noted when the old bridge was closed, the deck on the new bridge was already poured. All that remained to be done to put the new bridge into service was to let the concrete cure, put some asphalt down for the approaches, and restripe some lanes. Given the original closure limitation to nights and weekends, the original schedule of no full closure last weekend to do said approach work, and the fact it took half a weekend to pave the approaches, that delay is, depending on whether the work crews would have worked the holiday weekend or next weekend, either 4 or 11 days.
Revisions/extensions (5:02 pm 3/31/2010) – Somehow confused Thursday and Friday.
You are not correct. http://www.onmilwaukee.com/buzz/articles/zoointerchangeupdate032710.html
Do you see a deck? Not sure where you get your inaccurate information from, but you should reconsider before spouting off inaccuracies. Repeat after me: THE DECK WAS NOT ALREADY POURED LAST FRIDAY (3/26/10).
Fast-forward to 0:34 of the TMJ4 video from last Friday and take a look at the dark-gray mass over I-94 right next to the old bridge. That’s poured concrete on the new span.
That is subgrade, upon which the deck would be laid on a different day.
I take it you haven’t seen a lot of bridges being built before. The portions below-grade are the approaches. The deck gets poured immediately on top of the girders and whatever material is used as the form, and is poured before the approaches are finished to allow the approach height to be adjusted for any anomalies in bridge deck height.
Indeed, the picture in the OnMilwaukee article shows the elevation differential between the approaches (specifically, the northern approach) and the bridge deck.
Steve, I was wrong about subgrade, I admit, but that doesn’t change the fact that no decks were poured until Fri night. That was not the 45N bridge, but one of the connecting ramp bridges. The deck of 45N was poured on Saturday. I enjoy the sensationalism, and your fervor, but you are simply not right. I understand that people are upset that the bridge closed, and upset that the schedule was changed to expedite the pour and paving, but seriously, at least base your conspiracies on actual events. Also, Elvis is dead.
By your lack of response, I presume you agree that the deck was poured Saturday. At any rate, you may want to clarify with the JS blogger who mentioned your name in his 4/1/2010 post.
The only way someone could have possibly been impacted negatively by the early opening would be if they spent, say, thousands of dollars and invaluable efforts toward political opportunism (billboards, campaign slogans), all of which banked on the fact that the “detour/bypass” would have lasted longer than 4.5 business days.
Not much of a detour/bypass, but now there are those who will try and complain about the early opening. What would your blog have said if the bridge opened later than they said?
Clearly there is no arguing with those who conveniently ignore, and in your case, even create facts. Perhaps you would care to comment on the fact that under no plausible circumstance would there have been any work on the replaced structures prior to this closure, further negating this as a story with “legs?” Doubt it, just spin away. I will sleep fine tonight, how about those who avert and deter truthiness?
Perhaps you would like to directly accuse the contractor of being complicit in this conspiracy you speak of? I am sure that all of the owners of the construction companies are democrats, and wanted to make Doyle and Barrett look good.
“Always tell the truth. That way, you don’t have to remember what you said.”