Palin supports $600 million 'other' bridge project
By GARANCE BURKE – 18 hours ago
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Gov. Sarah Palin may eventually have said "no thanks" to a federally funded Bridge to Nowhere.
But a bridge to her hometown of Wasilla, that's a different story.
A $600 million bridge and highway project to link Alaska's largest city to Palin's town of 7,000 residents is moving full speed ahead, despite concerns the bridge could worsen some commuting and threaten a population of beluga whales.
Local officials already have spent $42 million on plans to route traffic across the Knik Arm inlet, a narrow finger of water extending roughly 25 miles northeast of Anchorage toward Wasilla. The proposal exists thanks to an earmark request by Republican Rep. Don Young, whose son-in-law has a small stake in property near the bridge's proposed western span....
Bridge repairs going nowhere (click here)
by Alyson E. Raletz
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Gov. Matt Blunt called on highway officials to initiate an overdue statewide bridge repair program Monday.
The plea came one year and 15 days after he stood on an Interstate 29 overpass in St. Joseph and signed legislation that enabled the work on 802 of the state’s worst bridges.
Dubbed one of the oldest bridges in the state, the deck of the U.S. Highway 169 bridge that runs over Interstate 29 was slated for a makeover, Mr. Blunt said on Sept. 5, 2007, during a special ceremony.
Mr. Blunt had called a special session that summer to hasten the repairs.
Virtually untouched, the local bridge still resembles a patchwork quilt in September 2008.
“We’ve put it off long enough, but we want to make sure we have a great value for the citizens of Missouri,” Missouri Highways and Transportation Commissioner David Gach, of St. Joseph, said of the entire project....
That is a heck of reality in the USA. First people die and then bridges are repaired beyond what is even expect. Something "W"rong here !!
Wis. bridges safer after I-35W collapse (click here)
By: Sara Lieburn
The Daily Cardinal - September 16, 2008 A little over a year since its collapse, the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis will open Thursday. The tragedy sparked an inspection of similar bridges in Wisconsin.
The Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, which collapsed last summer, is scheduled to reopen Thursday, and officials say Wisconsin has taken appropriate measures to protect against a similar tragedy.
The collapse of the bridge in August 2007 killed 13 people and initiated a special set of inspections on 16 similar bridges in Wisconsin.
Beth Cannestra, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, said the design error responsible for the I-35W bridge collapse was isolated to that bridge.
According to Cannestra, Wisconsin has taken a proactive approach with the special inspections following the collapse....
NTSB close to identifying cause of 35W bridge collapse (click here)
Last update: August 29, 2008 - 8:36 PM
The National Transportation Safety Board is close to identifying the cause of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse and plans to discuss its findings at a public hearing in Washington on Nov. 13.
The board said Friday that investigators are moving ahead with a draft of a final report after meeting Thursday with the parties to the official investigation.
They include the Minnesota Department of Transportation; the Federal Highway Administration; Jacobs Engineering, which acquired the bridge's original design consultant in 1999, and Progressive Contractors Inc., whose crews were resurfacing the bridge when it fell on Aug. 1, 2007.
Thirteen people died and 145 were injured in the collapse....
06:51 PM CDT on Thursday, September 11, 2008
By DAN X. McGRAW / The Dallas Morning News
dmcgraw@dallasnews.com
A construction contractor pulling an oversized load estimated at 100,000 pounds disregard the posted weight limit of 24,000 pounds, causing a bridge in Kaufman County to collapse, authorities said. Three people were injured.
The bridge, on FM 1836 just north of FM 90 near the town of Prairieville, collapsed about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday when a crew from R.K. Hall Construction Co. drove a tractor-trailer hauling a backhoe over the bridge, said Kelli Petras, a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of Transportation.
The bridge had earlier been deemed deficient by TxDOT and was going to be demolished....
