TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — President Obama came to this Westchester County village on Wednesday to use the three-mile-long Tappan Zee Bridge as a backdrop to pressure Republicans in Congress to support infrastructure spending.
The White House argues that unless the president’s new $302 billion, four-year transportation program is passed, current transportation funding will run out later this year, endangering 112,000 highway, port and bridge projects, 5,600 transit projects and nearly 700,000 jobs....I got s tremendous amount of heat with my wife, daughter, son and grandchildren over my activities at the bridge. There were rumors of divorcing me again. The theme was mike, you are acting like you are nuts. I afraid people will think I am nuts with staying married to you. I didn’t think my family seen the big picture with what I was doing. I got a really lot of shit from my family. I got a lot of shit from the people pass by me near the bridge.
Circa the summer of 2013, I knew all the selectmen were getting a tremendous pressure about the crazy halo man at the bridge. My activities were designed to do exactly than. I gave two presentations to them...the last one being the most contentious. I wish the final one could have been friendlier.
Clock ticks on bridges linking Brattleboro, Hinsdale
Local, state officials seek to get deteriorating spans onto 10-year plan
I was talking to my lawyer
in the winter. I asked him to talk with all the selectmen and the NHDOT
officials. He told me he had investigators calling the selectman. The town
official either didn’t take the call or could never say anything positive about
bridge nut in a court. I was smart enough to know there is more than one
objective in a court case. I was using a
form of power or influence...I knew by just getting the investigators to pester
them I might be able to influence or manipulate them independent of a court
case. I knew they are would be worried about how big this thing could get. They all knew and I told them I am a folk hero
or heading to be one...100,000s of people seen my antics at the bridge. I am making
a clear image on all of their minds.
I hammer the selectman over
and over again last summer, you got to do something more than just sitting
there. You got to write letters or complaints to the NHDOT or the governor. Talk to media.
You tell me, did my lawyers
activities precipitate this selectman’s letter.
May 9, 2014: I'll leave you with one final thought. If you can’t trust the state (NHDOT) to do the right thing (replace and re-nail the boards) in the heat of my activities surrounding last July 31, 2013, how can you trust the state to do the right thing and make accurate bridge inspections (Hinsdale) during the intense political heat surrounding the NHDOT budgets?
By Meghan Foley Sentinel Staff
HINSDALE — Now that a project to replace the two bridges
connecting Hinsdale to Brattleboro is back on the table, Hinsdale selectmen
want to make sure it stays there.
And that has prompted the board to request the N.H. Department of
Transportation increase inspections of the nearly 95-year-old structures.
Late last month, the
board sent a letter to the state agency asking it to more frequently inspect
the 1920 Pennsylvania truss bridges, one of which connects Hinsdale to Hinsdale
Island, and the other, Hinsdale Island to Brattleboro.
Board members made the request because they want to be sure the
bridges aren’t deteriorating any further, and that the project to replace them
is kept on the N.H. Department of Transportation’s 10-year transportation
improvement plan, Town Administrator Jill E. Collins said Wednesday.
The Hinsdale bridge replacement project had been part of the
transportation improvement plan since fiscal year 1994, but was bumped from the
2013-22 plan because of lack of funding.
The new draft plan, which covers 2015-24 and includes the Hinsdale
bridge, was approved by the N.H. House in March, and is awaiting approval from
the N.H. Senate.
According to the plan, one bridge would replace the two spans. The
single-span bridge would be to the south of the existing ones, and be built in
2021-22. The project is estimated to cost $45.7 million.
By then, the bridges, which were last rehabilitated in 1988 and
are considered functionally obsolete, will be 101 years old.
Functionally obsolete means the bridges are outdated, don’t meet current
design standards, are narrow and have height and weight restrictions.
In comparison, the Memorial Bridge, which carried Route 1 over the
Piscataqua River connecting Portsmouth and Kittery, Maine, was 89 years old and
when it was taken out of service in 2012 to be replaced.
Closer to home, the bridge carrying Route 9 from West Chesterfield
to Brattleboro over the Connecticut River was 66 years old when it was closed
to motor vehicle traffic in 2003 following the opening of a new bridge next to
it.
The bridges connecting Hinsdale and Brattleboro are called the
Charles Dana and Anna Hunt Marsh bridges, and efforts to replace or rebuild
them have been on-again, off-again since the early 1970s.
They’re inspected by state Department of Transportation
officials on a two-year cycle, which is standard for all state- and
municipal-owned bridges, Mark W. Richardson, administrator for the state
agency’s bridge design bureau, said Tuesday.
His office received a letter from the Hinsdale selectmen, and is
preparing a formal response, he said.
“There is much to consider regarding this request, most
importantly is the safety of the traveling public,” he said.
They also have to evaluate whether the bridge maintenance crew has
the resources to commit to the additional inspections, he said.
The Hinsdale bridges are ranked in fair condition, which is a five
out of nine on the system used by the state agency, but are one step away from
being added to the state’s red list.
A bridge makes the red list when one or more of its major
structural elements has an inspection ranking of four or less, Richardson said.
That ranking means the bridge’s deck or another structural element
is in poor condition with advanced section loss, deterioration, spalling or
scour, he said.
Spalling is when small sections separate from the main body of a
girder, deck or pier because of deterioration in the concrete, he said.
“Spalling usually does’t require a load reduction or posting, but
it does indicate that the concrete ... is deteriorating, which can be a real
safety concern if traffic travels under the bridge,” he said.
A bridge getting a ranking of three means that parts of it could
fail, and a bridge could be closed when it reaches a ranking of two, he said.
State red-list bridges are inspected twice a year, while municipal
red-list bridges are inspected once a year, he said.
“We are well aware of the attention that (Hinsdale-Brattleboro)
bridges have received and strive to ensure that they are in such a condition
that they can remain open for public use,” he said.
Even if his office determines it can handle more frequent
inspections of the Hinsdale-Brattleboro bridges, that won’t translate into a
shorter wait time on the state’s improvement plan, he said.
Meghan
Foley can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or mfoley@keenesentinel.com.
Follow her on Twitter @MFoleyKS.
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