Investment in Infrastructure

swchandler · Joined: 08 Nov 1993 Posts: 10588

Some great shots of the Golden Gate Bridge and its construction in celebration of its recent 78th anniversary. It was one amongst many grand projects done at the time, including the Bonneville Dam. Why aren't we doing important things like this today, especially with the low interest rates of today?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/28/travel/gallery/tbt-golden-gate-bridge-opens/index.html

mac · Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 3:34 pm Post subject:

Uh--because Obama and Elizabeth Warren are for it, and because it would create working class jobs?

coboardhead · Joined: 26 Oct 2009 Posts: 4303

I worked on a number of infrastructure jobs as a result of the stimulus funding. However, over the last several years, my small town government clients are finding it increasingly difficult to satisfy the funding restrictions. I just turned down an 80% State funded bridge design because of the requirements for multiple reviews, environmental consultants and labor restrictions. Simply too much for a small firm to handle. The project will likely not happen since these costs increase the overall project costs to the point where the municipality cannot match the funds or the up front costs.

So, the burden of carrying the white collar consultants is preventing blue collar jobs. Thus making the small projects, which have always provided a baseline employment, undoable.

nw30 · Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 4:27 pm Post subject:

This is what, the 3rd time that a so-called critical infrastructure crisis has come up during the Obama administration, what happened to the first two?
Poof!
The first attempt was actually pretty humorous, "I guess all those shovel ready jobs weren't so shovel ready", BHO.
So ya, serious restrictions governed by too many different government agencies who gobble up most of that money is a big problem.
But whenever we drive by a project actually being done, we get to read a big, bright, wonderful sign saying something to the effect of "Your tax dollars at work", that always makes me feel so much better. I wonder what overpaid government agency makes those signs.
BTW, how's that new Oakland Bay bridge doing? Water intrusion and rust, already!!! Oh no!!! Somebody got paid under the table.

mac · Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 4:33 pm Post subject:

So, NW--your degree in materials engineering tells you that there are problems with the Bay Bridge?

Opponents of government spending want to make mountains out of molehills, and newspapers like to report controversies. The bridge is a dramatic improvement over the previous bridge, will withstand an earthquake much better than any bridge in California--and is not perfect. There should be a panel to review lessons learned, on this and any other project. The person I believe on this is Bob Bea, former UC prof and designer of many off-shore platforms.

The latest news--spun as you wish--is that two of the over 400 seismic steel rods failed a pull test. NW--in your firm grasp of facts, what do you think the seismic safety factor is?

nw30 · Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 5:40 pm Post subject:

Trying to paint me as an engineer? Good luck with that, I'm just an observer of our huge government w/ it's overbearing requirements and regulations, and how it stifles growth,,,,,,,,, as the general contractor that I've been since 1976.
But I'm sure that the government couldn't be big enough for you, the bigger the better. Besides it would take a massive government to cool down the sun while paying scant concern to ISIS, all for our own protection. But even that wouldn't work, the sun would just laugh, as would ISIS.

Infrastructure should be kept healthy at the state and local level, and I don't need to hear about the federal highway system that Ike built, his administration built it, but it should be maintained and improved by the locals. The feds have more important things to do, like focusing on national security. Roads and bridges, "you broke it, you own it" where did I hear that before, oh ya, Col. Powell, talking about Iraq, boy sure haven't heard much from him lately. Hmmm?

mac · Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 9:11 pm Post subject:

No surprises from NW. Knows nothing about a subject, has no technical background to be able to follow the subject--yet somehow knows that somebody got paid off. Assigns me multiple opinions that I don't have. In my experience, many people who think everyone is cheating are none too honest themselves. The rest just have an unhappy and miserable outlook on the world.

One of our local windsurfers worked on the Bay Bridge construction project--for a big engineering firm. Talked to him today about the ignorant comments of many, including NW. He said something I know--that the bridge is an order of magnitude safer in an earthquake than the previous bridge. Materials engineering questions--and many other aspects of bridge design--were and are beyond the expertise of Caltrans, and they had to rely on consultants. The bridge was intended to have a useful life of 150 years, and the use of galvanized steel and water leakage may shorten that somewhat--or require some type of repair or maintenance. But an order of magnitude stronger is no small feat.

You are so wrong about the size of Caltrans--but that should surprise nobody, it wasn't for your studied opinions that you got labeled nitwit. Caltrans had nobody on staff that had designed a bridge, much less a single tower suspension bridge like the one the mayors insisted on. They had no choice but to rely on consultants for design and construction services. Imagine that, your beloved private sector consultants held most of the jobs for the project--and made nearly all of the mistakes.

Try thinking before typing. Better yet, investigate out of curiousity rather than accuse out of paranoia.