“The Route 119 Hinsdale, NH Family Killer Bridge“

From: Jacqueline Dagesse
To: Michael Mulligan
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2013 9:00 AM
Subject: Re: Hinsdale, NH New Bridge Pubic Comment

Hi Michael,

 

We appreciate your comments.

Thank you,

Jacquie

Jacqueline Dagesse, MBA, CPESC, PMP

Environmental Engineer

EIV Technical Services

www.eivtech.com

55 Leroy Rd., Suite 15

Williston, VT 05495

 

On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 2:22 PM, Michael Mulligan <steamshovel2002@yahoo.com> wrote:

Dear Jacqueline Dagesse,

Could you place my attachment into the comment section of the Hinsdale, NH Route 119 Transportation Corridor public meeting documentation?

Thanks,

Mike Mulligan

Hinsdale, NH

16033368320

Selective enforcement of Hinsdale's zoning ordinance. Taken on July 29 at 3pm. Hinsdale selectmen are going headhunting on me.

You guys get it, we are entering a nightmare. Both the state and the feds are powerless to help us. The good guys just are powerless to help the weak and vulnerable.

Obama calls for infrastructure investment as economic tour continues

By Shawna Thomas and Michael O'Brien, NBC News

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- President Barack Obama used the Port of Jacksonville as a backdrop for his latest economic policy speech, using an infrastructure project there to illustrate his call for greater investment in similar projects.
In his third economy-driven speech in two days, Obama mixed policy initiatives with barbs leveled at Republicans in Congress, whom he blamed for slowing infrastructure investments. 

"We know strong infrastructure is a key ingredient to a thriving economy," Obama said, citing the need, for instance, to prepare ports like Jacksonville's for oncoming "supertanker" shipments. "Unfortunately, over the past few years, too many folks have been cutting these investments in Washington."

The president's speech was otherwise a litany of initiatives familiar to any listener of his speeches on Wednesday during stops in Illinois and Missouri. Obama continued to push his message of middle-class growth through more government investment in infrastructure. But his criticism of congressional Republicans took on a somewhat sharper tone as he accused them of worsening gridlock in the nation's capital...

iBrat

Unsafe: Williams Street I 91 Bridge Between Exit 1 & 2 (March 2008) 

The New Hinsdale Bridge project has a public meeting at the Windham Regional Career Center on Aug 1 6 pm. It is the pretty Loriella letter.

Dear Jacqueline Dagesse, 

Could you place my attachment into the comment section of the Hinsdale, NH Route 119 Transportation Corridor public meeting documentation? 

Thanks,

Mike Mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
16033368320
steamshovel2002@yahoo.com

I proofed this so many times...I still got mistakes in it. So I am fixing what "i can see". Sorry!

The walkway under structure goes like this. Large metal brackets are attacked to the bridge. Two metal c-beams run parallel to the bridge and bolted to the brackets. Two by six boards are bolted to the c-beams through the length of the bridge. Then the top wooded planks are nailed to the 2 by 6s.

The 2 by 6s seem to be in good shape.

I am all confused with the bridge inspector talking about screws and metal beams underneath.

Was he saying the 2 by 6s were rotting?

I just think they were just too lazy to re-nail the top wooden planks to the 2 by 6s. The don’t waste money on Hinsdale and those bridges anymore attitude.

Those brackets holding up sidewalks are in dangerously corroded condition…

Right, they can't use those bridge inspection vehicles with a long hydraulic arm and a personal basket on this bridge... 

Dear Loriella Babkirk,

What a pretty first name!

 I received a copy of your e-mail titled "RE: Brattleboro/ Hinsdale Bridge" dated July 8, 2013 a few days ago. The documents were placed anonymously on the open front seat of my car at the approach of the Route 119 Brattleboro. Actually, I got the Vermont and NH state DOT officials’ response to youy letter also with all the attachments. You haven’t seen the truth in these official state responses and their documents.

 By the way, could somebody send me through e-mail those NHDOT bridge inspection reports and photos stated in the attachments please…the five attachments?

You know, everyone’s got to start buckling up here right now. This ride is going to get goddamn rough.

I am the guy at the Route 119 Hinsdale bridges blessing you and everyone else who passes this area. Have you recently seen me dressed up with my nice halo as a bridge safety angel? I am warning all of the lands with an impending bridge collapse or closure in the near future. It is going to be an economic, individual and multi community catastrophe.

As you know, I have spent considerable time at the bridge this year. This is my third year working on this project. I am the talk of the town in Hinsdale...mostly positive and a few even threatening harm to me. Most of Hinsdale thinks I have really gone overboard with my halo and blue angel get-up. Pictures of pathetic me wearing a halo are on my blog! See pictures on my blog!

I would consider our grossly technically obsolete 1921 and dangerously degraded bridge…engineers language… being a “super fracture critical” bridge! The collapsed I35 Minneapolis Bridge was built in 1964 and the I-5 Skagit River Bridge was built in 1955. The Hinsdale/Brattleboro Bridges were built in 1921. The Concord, NH Sewalls Falls road bridge five miles north of Concord, NH was built in 1915. This is the future of our bridge.   

NTSB 2007 Investigation into the Minneapolis I35 Bridge Collapse 

“NTSB findings:

Because the deck truss portion of the I-35W bridge was non-load-path redundant, the total collapse of the deck truss was likely once the gusset plates at the U10 nodes failed.

Non-load-path-redundant: The condition where fracture of an individual structural element (a fracture-critical element) could lead to a partial or total collapse of the entire bridge. A bridge that is non-load-path-redundant is not inherently unsafe, but it does lack redundancy in the design of its support structure. Such bridges are sometimes referred to as fracture critical. The I-35W bridge was of a non-load-path-redundant design.”

I will speak plainly to you. I think the NH bridge inspection process is severely corrupted. The NHDOT roads and bridges budget has been severely restrained for many years now. NH got a huge back log of projects. We are never going to catch up to our responsibilities.  They don't have enough money to keep the 1921 Hinsdale Bridge functional and up to date with maintenance considering the growth of traffic and large trucks. So these guys just close their eyes to Hinsdale. The NHDOT fear the enormous political fallout if they are forced to restrict flow of the traffic or close the bridge. NHDOT fears more the approximate $35 million dollar cost with the replacement bridge.

New Hampshire and their NHDOT are in existentialism’s vice between money limitations and vital societal pubic needs. It ends up as a disproportional war against small town and rural New Hampshire from the powerful well-heeled and high population areas. An unfair and severely unsafe proportion of the NHDOT budgets (and stimulus) has been going to the powerful well healed Concord, Nashua and our NH golden seacoast corridor triangle. This is Boston’s exurbia bedroom community within New Hanshire. That blood sucking sound you hear is all the big southeast NH transportation projects stealing our hopes and dreams from us…the jobs and transportation resources from rural NH.

Our Route 119 Hinsdale/Brattleboro Bridge is tragically obsolete and fracture critical. I keep thinking about the disgusting bent, corroded gusset and the deeply displaced vertical member caused by a vehicle crash on our bridge. How  come that wasn’t ever repaired. This indicates a profound agency attitude with valuing human life and infrastructure engineering integrity.

‘I-5 Bridge listed as 'fracture critical'

Columbia River span could collapse if hit with big enough blow

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Both spans of the Interstate 5 Bridge over the Columbia River are considered "fracture critical" by the Oregon Department of Transportation, meaning if one crucial part of the bridge sustains a big enough blow, the bridge could collapse.

In it, the I-5 Columbia River Bridge is categorized as a bridge without safety redundancies or backups that would prevent it from collapsing if part of a bridge truss is damaged or removed.

"If one of the fracture-critical pieces is somehow taken out, removed or fails in some way, the whole bridge could collapse," Oregon transportation spokesman Don Hamilton said Tuesday. He declined to specify where the bridge would need to be damaged in order to collapse, because he didn't want to make the bridge's weak spots public.

It is the absence of our tiny voice within New Hampshire government with how we control the arterial life blood flow within little Hinsdale and all of the small town and rural New Hampshire. And our tiny voice stands up for the efficiency of traffic flow and safety for our surrounding communities and bordering states. The majority of the flow of traffic on Hinsdale’s route 119 is not our town’s people. This itty bitty voice in the wilderness is sticking up for the safety interest of the multitudes. They all come from far and wide for passage through our town or to see our little rendition of heaven. 

I am saying, who is going to oversee and regulate the state bridge inspectors?  Who is going to inspect the NH bridge inspectors? I wouldn’t be surprised after reading the 2007 NTSB’s Minneapolis I35 bridge report if knowingly grossly inaccurate and falsified state and federal documents are legal in New Hampshire. You know, the privilege of kings with total unaccountability. This is a fundament flaw with our nation. We don’t have one highway and road standard, seeing how we send many million dollars to the states. Our federal system should have stick oversight of the State Dots. As an example, just look at the I-35 Minneapolis bridge collapse. There was many known long term flaws in bridge maintenance and state DOT engineering codes. Who is going to step in if the states don’t give a shit?      

So the easy way out of this political mess is to falsify bridge inspections and state and federal documents. The NHDOT staff and officials of NHDOT are severely demoralized, underpaid and intimidated by severely underfunded and highly politicalized agency state budgets. The NHDOT employees are all facing massive and unprecedented employee, personal and official layoffs and firings in the next two years. The organization are a "black hole" with withholding information and selective truth telling for political, personal and career protection. Just give them the minimum transparency, boys…for our protection. This is black hole organization is beyond the control of any entity on the planet because of their self-interested selective truth-telling, lying and object and uncontested NH and federal illegal document falsification.

So below article is an analogy for similar cultures and systems across many organizations.  Who plays the roles of the patients, the doctors, the medical employees and the medical establishment and the bureaucracy in our system of bridges, towns, employees, voters/taxpayers/ public, the feds, state DOT  and our wider transportation system. If the NHDOT respects their professional employees more will Hinsdale town’s people be more secure and safe? At least the citizens of Hinsdale would have a lot more accurate information to engage our state politicians. Of course, our state government never operates on the facts. Is the sick patient the Hinsdale Route 119 Bridge or is it all the people and businesses who use our bridges?   

Why is government always hiding in the deep shadows?

Where is the respect of us and why is it lacking in in our wider culture and system? I bet you it’s all related to greed and economic insecurity?    

“In a Culture of Disrespect, Patients Lose Out” (NYT)

I’ve always thought about respect as common decency, something we should do because it’s simply the right thing to do. In the medical world, we certainly need to strive for respectful behavior, especially given our historically rigid pecking order, our ingrained traditions of hierarchical bullying and, of course, a primary constituency — patients — who are often on uniquely vulnerable footing.

 But then I stumbled across two articles in Academic Medicine that talked about respect as an issue of patient safety. The authors, a group of doctors and researchers at Harvard Medical School, outlined the myriad acts of disrespect that we’ve come to accept as a way of life in medicine, and showed how these can lead to a final pathway of harm to our patients.

 This shift in perspective was a shock to the system. When we tolerate a culture of disrespect, we aren’t just being insensitive, or obtuse, or lazy, or enabling. We’re in fact violating the first commandment of medicine. How can we stand idly by when our casual acceptance of disrespect is causing the same harm to our patients as medication errors, surgical mistakes, handoff lapses and missed lab results?

… Though these annoyances may seem trivial,  this lack of respect “undermines morale, and inhibits transparency and feedback,” the authors write. Morale, transparency and feedback are pillars of preventing medical error. Patients ultimately bear the brunt of this unhealthy atmosphere.

…Added to the clarion call should be patient safety. The connection between disrespectful behavior to patient safety should be made explicit in our efforts, since this is a rallying point that everyone can agree on. Medical staff members should absolutely be holding ourselves to the highest bar of professional and respectful conduct. We have no excuses for anything less. But beyond this, the medical system needs to re-evaluate itself and the way it respects — or disrespects — its own workers, and by extension, its patients.

We are still trying to figure out what this NHDOT scientific and engineering phrase means. A lead “bridge inspector” told us this. He was performing a bridge inspection this spring. We got pictures...see my blog. He told us his group was just "corn cobbing" these bridges. What does "corn cobbing" a bridge inspection mean? This is such obscene disrespect to concerned members of the public.

So this is my blog: "The Poppervillve Town Hall.

"Summer 2013: Hinsdale/Brat Route 119Bridge Protest"
 

Don't forget to click on my other articles and links in my blog...I pictured up most of the underneath of the Route 119 Brattleboro and Hinsdale bridge. Scroll down to look at all of my bridge pictures...you won't be able to stop. These are dangerously obscene pictures of the structures of the

bridge.

 Added:

iBrat

Unsafe: Williams Street I 91 Bridge Between Exit 1 & 2 (March 2008)

 

The Vermont DOT officials might recognize my name. I took pictures of their I 91 (between exit 1 and 2) “William Street" interstate bridge in early 2007. See my pictures of this now demolished bridge under steamshovel2002 and Flickr. Those bridge piers were in dangerously and atrocious conditions. This rather new 1960 (smile) bridge was functionally obsolete. The I91 Interstate Bridge was dangerously narrow and didn’t have safety breakdown lanes like Hinsdale’s route 119 bridges.

Do you remember a tractor trailer who was trying to miss a skidded and stalled car on the Williams Street Bridge. The semi tried to skid around the stalled car on the north bound bridge. Instead, he went right through the bridge railings like tissue paper to his death. I renamed that bridge the Vermont “Daddy Killer Bridge” because the driver had young kids. What shall I name the Hinsdale Route 119 Bridges?

I thinking “The Route 119 Hinsdale, NH Family Killer Bridges“. I could make this a sign and plaster the bridges with it.

I forced Vermont into the replacement of these bridges and many blame me with a rethink on the conditions of all I 91 bridges. This demolished young (humor) bridge was built in the early 1960 and the new bridges are 1000 times more gorgeous than the dead headed baby boomer bridge when we were developing our Interstate system.   

Man, I am in love with those new huge concrete piers holding the new Brattleboro "William Street" bridge. You know, those NJ style integral to the bridge concrete safety barriers will certainly contain any fully loaded tractor trailer. The Vermont DOT official knows what i mean. Mr. Mike Hedges of the VTDOT, you tell the NHDOT how powerful my pictures are. They are going bend to my will!

So here is my list of safety and economic concerns with the Route 119 Hinsdale bridges. They are all pictured up on my blog. If any of these issues are missing and not explained in detail in the past NHDOT inspection reports this is “prima facia” evidence there is massive NHDOT bridge fraud and falsification of paperwork throughout the state. It is NHDOT bridge illegal paperwork falsification to meet a political and self-interested ends? My experience with organizational lying and fraud…it doesn’t happen in one spot in the organizations. The rot is in everything in the organization and in related organizations.   

1)   A few days ago I was on the Brattleboro side of the Route 119 Bridge and standing directly across from the new Whetstone Station restaurant. I had my halo on and was dressed up as a blue angel warning everyone of an impending bridge collapse. Dave, the owner of the restaurant walked over to me. I thought he was irked that I was scaring away his customers. He has a large bar with huge windows facing my protest area on the Hinsdale side of the bridge. Seems, they were watching me. These huge picture windows have a gorgeous elevated view of the Connecticut River and Wantastiquet Mountain. I asked him if I am chasing away your customers. He said not at all. I explained I am trying to replace this bridge. Dave said I am totally on your side. Then he asked me, “Did you hear about the recent serious bicycling accident on the bridge walkway?”

The bridge wooden walkway has many loose and warped planks. It is much worse than last year. As a bicyclist was crossing the bridge walkway, his tire flipped up a loose plank. He did an Endo…flipped over the handle bars on the bridge. He crashed into the railing banging his head and breaking his shoulders. He was almost thrown into the river. He was stunned. Dave called the ambulance. The bicyclist said he would have been dead if he was flipped into the river.

So this spring I was interviewing my NHDOT “corn cobbling” lead bridge inspector buddy. I got pictures of this…see my blog. I said at one point, you guys got big problems with the bridge walkway wooden planks. Most of the planks are loose and many warping. It is getting worst. Some planks are warping where the middle is sticking up and many are warping where one end sticks way up in the air. He told me, “the iron metal structure that attaches the planks by screws to the bride is too corroded to accept the screws.” “It is all just rust down there and all the screws just spin.” You got to wonder will the wooden walkway collapse into the river someday. I told “Mr Corn cobbing bridge inspector” (2013), you know, we got many disabled people with motorized wheelchairs traveling this walkway. They complain to me about the plank bumps and the not snow blowed walkways in the winter? They mostly go the convenience store in the old Wal-Mart store. 
 

“A Plea To President Obama For A NewBridge” (Sept 24, 2012)

“These bridges have an increasing diabetic rotting wasting disease…”

“The bridge underneath looks like this diabetic's rotting legs and bridge's rotting railings and beams.”

“There is a lot of grass over-growth into the middle of the sidewalk that rubs onto his wheelchair and face. Robert worries a piece of metal will get pulled out into the walkway and then he not sees it. It cuts his leg and then he can't control the infection, or the cut won't heal. Then they have to cut off the leg. A fallen down branch could be hidden in the overgrown grass onto the sidewalk...again he is at extreme risk with losing a limb if it cuts or bruises him. This could easily put him in the grave.”

“The little spin in his wheel chair is one of the few freedoms Robert has.”

“He has had his family fixing the ruts (sidewalk) in this asphalt sidewalk.” (So his wheelchair wouldn’t fall over or make him stuck in place.)

…“Here is Robert right to your face (Sept 24, 2012). You notice the decaying bridge wood walkway planking under his wheelchair...many loose and warped big time.”

Note: My blog and my picture (fall 2012) of Robert’s diabetic leg and the rotting bridge railing made the NHDOT fix the cancerous railing in the 2013 spring inspection. May god have mercy on all our runaway monstrous Frankenstein New Hampshire souls? You see the rotting wooden planks under the rotting railing and this poor man’s wheelchair. They completely ignored the dangerous wooden planks and the screws that wouldn’t catch. This unsafe walkway are well known to NHDOT for many years.

Hinsdale use to remove the snow from the walkway with their special sidewalk plowing vehicle. They stopped because Hinsdale figured out the machine was too heavy for the walkway and  it was also scraping up the loose wooded planks. Why can’t they drive down the road with a snow blower in a pickup? Why can’t the state pay Hinsdale to snow blow the state walkway? How come the bridge walkway doesn’t get snow plowed in the winter? I get it, money, money money!

You know what I am really trying do here; I am trying to save the soul of the state of New Hampshire!

You see the New Hampshire monstrous disregard for the value of human life with the Route 119 Hinsdale/ Brattleboro bridge walkway issue. Let’s role play the NHDOT District 4 Engineer’s job. Did you see his pathetically poverty stricken and isolated list of small towns in his area. One can only imagine the magnitude the long list of backlogged transportation jobs for his District. I wonder what the criteria is for shoving out NHDOT projects in his district? I bet it is political and population density!

So the Hinsdale Route 119 bridge walkways come to his attention. They are in unsafe condition. He knows he just can’t put screws into the rotting wooden planks. They pop that baby open and he knows it going to be a complete rework of the walkway and their iron support structure. He knows if they go mucking around the bridge deck support iron beams and severely corroded gussets might need a lot of work. The job cost could get really big and shut the bridge anyways. The bridge is obsolete by four times and it is breathing its death throes. He goes spending big bucks in Hinsdale…then ten other towns in his district are going to be looking to string him up to their worst bridge.

It makes you wonder if we are seeing a NHDOT organizational disease. We make one of those “facilitative assumptions” where the bridge is so dilapidated and old, why waste money in it. A new bridge is right around the corner so shut your eyes and don’t waste money on it. The state effectively disconnects itself from the overseeing the bridge and doing the proper upkeep of it. A young or middle-age bridge has a huge value in it so we will take care of it. A decrepit bridge is so ugly and expensive…just turn away your eyes from it and don’t look. It is only human nature. Is there something in our brain or organization that unintentionally turns off our caring because of these affects…obscures our vision and curiosity?    

The below from the most recent spring 2013 Environmental Assessment is interesting. The first Wal-Mart store forced Hinsdale and the NHDOT to construct a sidewalk and a walkway. With the rot going on in wooden planks and rotting iron works who won’t hold a screw or hold on to the planks, it must be a cheapy defective design and construction of this walkway.

You know, that is the “New Hampshire Advantage”. It is a whole set of half ass fixes and “facilitative assumptions”. This unseen and hidden corruption goes on for decades after decades into the indefinite.  A facilitative assumption is when a CEO, politician and agency head…especially the professional class and engineers…who knowingly makes a corrupt critical organizational decision based on self-interest or a narrow interest in order to save his job and career. You make an assumption deep under the citizenry and employees, knowingly not aligned with the facts or the greater good in order fulfill a narrow and shallow interest. It is dastardly hidden corruption deep behind the scenes that screws all the innocent and good citizens. It mostly benefits the professional class and the politicians.

There are also good faciltative assumptions. A young man makes a mistake. You think he is just inexperience and immature…but you give him many breaks because you know he will become a great man. You will make him a great man. And he then does become a great man.

Heuristics is related this…   

EnvironmentalAssessment

BRATTLEBORO, VT – HINSDALE, NH TRANSPORTATION CORRIDOR

BRF 2000(19)SC  June, 2013  

 

…In 1993 a sidewalk was installed on the north side of both bridges…

So the Hinsdale bridge walkway becomes direly unsafe…the District 4 Engineer’s choices are to refurbish the walkway or to block the walkway from further traffic. He doesn’t have the funding to do our bridge walkways. All the pedestrians will then have to walk the bridge deck roadway. Two opposing cars at the same time got barely enough room to pass each other…certainly there in insufficient room for two big trucks. Can you image the hue and cry to the District 4 Engineer and Concord if they make pedestrians walk on the functionally obsolete bridge road bed without any safety breakdown lane? Believe me; the daily peak traffic doesn’t have enough room to get the cars by without a lot of time delay, with the sharp 90 degree turn and massive public speeding.

I know the solution considering the realities in Concord, NH and keeping my job…only one lane of traffic going across the one bridge at one time. Here comes the New Hampshire Advantage? It will reduce the traffic stress of the bridge to extend the bridge life and allow pedestrians to passage the bridge without a separated walkway. Everyone will be safe.  But traffic will be backed up all the way to Putney and Winchester?

Many people and my own family have come up to me to explain how impacted and inconvenienced they will be. Mike, if the bridge closes, you are going to eat up between two to three hours a day with a round trip. We are talking about 30 miles and verging on $10 bucks a day. This is going to severely impact thousands of innocent people. Mike, you know your town is poverty stricken and most of our community is struggling with inadequate income and time. This is going to hurt the poor way more than anyone else…don’t even talk about gasoline prices. Mike, you are stealing money right out of their purses and pockets. 

So you got conflicting human needs and budgets, priories and limitations... budgets, priorities and limitations are always extraordinarily immoral. The limitations always get concentrated in the poorest and weakest segments of our society. The state of New Hampshire with this NH Advantage has become a monster to our weakest and poorest. It is tax breaks for the big boys and suffering and insecurity for the bottom half…

The bridge inspection group leader right in front of me turned a blind eye to the deterioration of safety with the walkway…he knew injuries and possible deaths was right around the corner. The enormous consequences without adequate budgets for valuing human life was too severe for the NHDOT and the Districts 4 Engineer…the known severely degraded walkway wooden planks and the iron works that holds up the walkway. The easy default that just defers pain and suffering…compared to shutting downing down the bridge, walkway or gaining more funding for the NH transportation system…was to knowingly turn a blind eye to the rotting walkway and to falsify NH and federal documents.

As Ralph Nader once chewed us all out…he said it was always about the least worst choice. It always about the least worst choice. It is never about our highest or best choice. It is never about us all being honorable men and women. The miserable and rotten system makes our lives all about least worst choices. Our children live whole least worst lives. Did god make a least worst Universe?  

You know when an organization is near brain dead…where they don’t appreciate paper work and the bureaucracy. Were everyone in trained that documented observations and concerns are extraordinarily important attributes for a learning organization. You make it easily document their concerns in public form and you make is the issues non erasable and searchable. You hold yourself accountable to the voter,  public, and everyone.

If you ignore something or miss it then a person can come back through the recorded document. I warned them. Here, this is from their system…see, they got a pattern going on here. I am telling you this is powerful stuff and it leverages experiences in the learning organization.

Then you got the constant do nothing complainers. You say stop that chatter, do something about it. Make a complaint and stick with to the end. The rumor is these guys are serious with complaints and you can change things. Right, you are talking about public participation and the little guy gaining faith in government. But I am crazy guy at the foot of the bridge wearing a halo and putting a cut blue sheet over my shoulders…     

It is easily apparent to me the NHDOT increasingly is losing the organizational ability to discriminate between little human safety risk or community well-being risk and enormous risk of injury, death and widespread wellbeing risk to a community. They increasingly can’t separate the background noise from an important signals or message. The NHDOT is facing deepening troubles with NHDOT budgets and ever increasing to-do-list of degraded roads, bridge and infrastructure. A human’s brain or organization ability to discriminate big problems from little problems is a wonderful gift…when a brain is forced to discriminate too much it becomes exhausted or we call it we “become numbed”. Becoming numb in high consequence organizations, as is in prolong driving a car in heavy metropolitan congestion and traffic becomes extraordinarily dangerous when you become numbed…is very dangerous.  It is much like if an organization dances around or jumps over the fire too much…you become numb to the dangers of the fire.

I am warning you, New Hampshire is a runaway monster without a conscience…or they have become severely numbed by an increasing assortment of problems, financial problems and pressures. They can’t tell right from wrong, background noise from critical warnings and information. NH is acting as a monster…we have become monsters because we have become so inattentive, exhausted and numbed because of insecurity, inadequate resources and increasing needs.   

2)   You got real issues with this 1921 (Brattleboro) bridge swinging, vibrating and swaying under light load and traffic conditions. It gets much worst increasingly with heavier traffic. Two or three cars and a pickup truck on the bridge gets that bridge vibrating uncomfortably. Heavy traffic, big trucks and especially semis creates stomach wrenching vibrations, creates resonant traffic vibrations.  I am taking about swaying and up and down…plus the big vibrations. There got to be some engineering limits or standards to this dangerous motion. Something is really wrong with that bridge.

I consider this abnormal bridge movement a dire warning of imminent bridge collapsed and a direly weak or damaged bridge structure. I kid everyone; you have to take your motion sickness (Dramamine) meds if you don’t want to throw up before you get 350 feet to the other side of the bridge.

I am just saying, you could have a lot of unseen damage and degradation to the bridge stiffening structural members, relatively small iron works…this could set up this tragic heavy unnatural vibration and swaying. It just could be a poor design for the conditions we place this 1921 bridge under with the heavier vehicles and never anticipated heavy traffic. Traffic levels drastically are on the way up too in the coming years…   

They got small cell phone like instrumentation and powerful accelerometers. They could record the bridge vibration and send them the data intermittently through the cell phone system. They got decent accurate modern computer structural programs…they could give you a normal range of bridge vibrations. It would give you an early indication of developing bridge problems. Did I remind you this bridge is 93 years old?    

It is interesting thinking about the historic and future daily average traffic going across this bridge. As I say, New Hampshire is a monster without a conscience to think our bridge can withstand the beating of 13,000 car and trucks per day for any length of time. Think about this increasingly severe degradation going on in an assortment of 1921 bridge components and 13,000 vehicles traveling across the bridge in 2015. They should put the NHDOT executives into the Retreat. You catch trend with the rate of change of vehicles a day going over this in a very short period?  How much traffic will the farm tractor supply store and burgeoning fireworks industry bring us by 2020? My best estimate with the politics of New Hampshire is the new bridge won’t be built for 50 years.

The 1915 “Sewalls Falls Road Bridge” in Concord NH is another of the NHDOT’s Frankenstein monsters with allowing huge chunks of the bridge to fall off and they say you are good to go till  2015 if you cross that bridge with your eyes closed. Hinsdale is heading directly to the Sewalls Falls Road Bridge. ..with huge weight restriction and lane limitations.

God help us all if the economy picks up?        

2010: 7200 vehicles per day (vpd)

2012: 9700 vpd

2015: 13,000 vpd  

This spring I asked my “corn cobbling” NHDOT Bridge lead inspector buddy if this bridge is swaying and vibrating dangerously? He said the new Navy Seabees Bridge does the same vibrating and swinging…all modern bridge does this to minimize stresses. It sounded good from a NHDOT bridge inspection leader, right. I wonder how much bridge inspection training they really get and their educations levels. These guys probable get a three week quickie course and a few days of training every ten years. The first thing NH cuts has always been training and education.

The next thing I know I was then standing for 2 hours in the middle of the New Route 9 Connecticut River Seabees Bridge four miles upstream from Hinsdale in heavy traffic. It is really a beautiful and sturdy bridge. The bridge doesn’t have any walkway, the old bridge is the walkway…so I was standing on the unprotected spacey and gorgeous breakdown safety lane. I mean, what was I going to tell the cops if they came? I was trying to get a feel for the bridge vibration? They would have been taking me to Retreat. It was solid and vibration free. It was if I standing on a granite outcrop on the nearby Wantastiquet Mountain. I think all these NHDOT employees are habituated into lying and telling half-truths to the stupid mushroom public. Or just not talking when they know something…

3)  What is up with that huge anchor bolt not being attached to the concrete footing on the Brattleboro Bridge’s southern corner side? Why is the really thick iron plate bent that attaches the nut to the dangling anchor bolt?  Why is the thick iron plate below the bent iron plate mostly destroyed by corrosion and it is 80% delaminated? The concern I have with seeing this picture with the original 1921 concrete, is massive degradation of the bridge west concrete footing. The big semis would be beating the hell out of this concrete. As with the massive unseen corrosion destruction of the iron plates seen in my picture that is deep within the belly of this beast, how assured can we be that the other iron structural components on or near the footing or foundation are not destroyed. 

“WSDOT Bridge Design Manual”

Obviously, bridges cannot be built incrementally longer without eventually requiring expansion joint devices. The incidence of approach pavement distress problems increases markedly with increased movement that must be accommodated by the end diaphragm pressing against the backfill. Approach pavement distress includes pavement and backfill settlement and broken approach slab anchors.

…If some means was not used to accommodate this, the bridge could buckle.

4)   The Brattleboro Bridge has no expansion joint. Our bridge can expand and contract to the tune of 2 to 6 inches between the extremes of the outside seasonal temperatures. Both sides of these bridges are hard attached by multiple large anchor bolts to the crumbling 1921 concrete footing or foundation. The bridge has an expansion joint on the west side…it is non-functional…the deck is hard attached to the footing on both side.  Why isn’t a lack of a functioning bridge expansion joint leading to serious bridge degradation and an eventual bride collapse? I think this is a critical bridge design error and it is amazing that massive bridge damage hasn’t shown up yet…

NTSB 2007 Investigation into the Minneapolis I35 Bridge Collapse  

“Expansion joint: A meeting point between two parts of a structure that is designed to allow for independent movement of the parts due to thermal expansion while protecting the parts from damage. Expansion joints are commonly visible on a bridge deck as a hinged or movable connection perpendicular to the roadway”

5)   The bridge rollers are frozen in place and a roller (rocker bearing) is displaced at an angle indicating severe bridge movement. I got a feeling during prior bridge renovations and refurbishment the NHDOT intentionally bypassed the bridge rollers by hard connecting the bridge deck to the footing or foundation though huge anchor bolting?

NTSB 2007 Investigation into the Minneapolis I35 Bridge Collapse 

 “Rocker bearing: A bridge support bearing that accommodates thermal expansion and contraction of the superstructure through a rocking action.”

This should be damaging the bridge and leading to a bridge collapse as read in all the bridge engineering and maintenance procedures. It leads to much more expensive maintenance on a bridge on a not maintained bridge. It should be noticed the traffic entrance at both ends of the bridge comes on the bridge at an angle or not good geometry…not a straight shot across the bridge including their entrances. It is a lot to torque (centrifugal) and stress for a bridge with a car or heavy truck turning on the bridge at high speeds. This creates all sorts unnatural bridge stress with the modern vehicle weights and unimagined traffic at bridge design time that was never considered in the initial bridge analysis. See pictures in my blog.

6)   On the west side of the Brattleboro Bridge the huge upper truss (2) iron beams (holds up the deck) are connected to the concrete by a huge metal bracket (4). A huge metal nut and bolt, along with metal plates, holds the critical truss to the concrete abutment or footing. There is massive and severe corrosion going on in all these components. The concrete footing is severely cracked and spalled allowing road water to intrude deeply into the degraded abutment or/and footing. I estimate the safety critical truss, bolting and brackets are more than 70% destroyed. Stomach wrenching and throwing up disgusting pictures of these components are on my blog. The pictures from my camera don’t near capture how bad this area is and  can’t give you a good impression of the depth of wastage.      

7)   The whole Brattleboro Bridge East entrance is subsiding and shifting.  This includes the bridge abutment, footing, foundation, masonry materials, the large granite blocks are displaced, piers and the whole east end of the bridge. In the right weather conditions, saturated soil the heavy truck vibrations  could get massive shifting or a landside of the entrance under soil ending with the huge bridge and its passengers calving into the river. That includes both sided of the bridge detaching from the foundations with its weak attachments and the bridge tipping over in the river. We have no idea what is under the bridge foundation…it is probably river sand, composting sentiment and compacting mud. In 1921 you can’t count on it being rock ledge or granite bed rock. Remember “Island Park” is nothing but a Connecticut River sand bar.   

8)   Let’s play the “value of human” life hide and seek game? State NHDOT peek-a-boo. This should take the breath away from any bridge civil engineer of any standing what-so-ever.

NTSB 2007 Investigation into the Minneapolis I35 Bridge Collapse 

Distortion of Gusset Plates: The Safety Board concludes that distortion such as bowing is a sign of an out-of-design condition that should be identified and subjected to further engineering analysis to ensure that the appropriate level of safety is maintained.

Can you find the bent and detaching bridge gusset on the Brattleboro Bridge? Bent and damage bridge gussets are a severe indication of imminent bridge failure or collapse. You blind and stupid civil engineers’ need a clue and a real life, it is on the east side of the Brattleboro Route 119 Bridge with the subsiding bridge entrance and its foundation, and the severe corrosion to the upper truss connection, to the bridge crumbling foundation.    

EnvironmentalAssessment

BRATTLEBORO, VT – HINSDALE, NH TRANSPORTATION CORRIDOR BRF 2000(19)SC  June, 2013 

‘The existing substructures are a mix of concrete and masonry materials. Vertical and horizontal clearances are inadequate by current AASHTO design standards. In 1988 structural elements were replaced. In 1993 a sidewalk was installed on the north side of both bridges. In 2003 precast concrete deck panels were installed on both bridges. Despite ongoing maintenance efforts, both bridges are considered seriously deteriorated due to river scouring at the foundations, concrete spalling in the abutments and piers, and corrosion to the structural steel framing.”

9)   Towards the west end of the Brattleboro Bridge a vertical member, maybe a diagonal member near the road bed is severely bent and displaced. I suspect it occurred on contact with a snow plow or it comes from a vehicle accident when this member wasn’t protected by, maybe the 1988 installed guard rail job.

NTSB 2007 Investigation into the Minneapolis I35 Bridge Collapse 

“Corrosion on Gusset Plates: The I‑35W bridge was only one of a number of steel truss bridges that were found to have gusset plate corrosion and section loss that had been overlooked or underestimated by State bridge inspectors. In 1996, gusset plates on the eastbound Lake County Grand River bridge in Ohio failed while the bridge was undergoing maintenance. The failure was attributed to corrosion and section loss, which had completely penetrated the gusset plates at some locations. The amount of section loss had been masked by corrosion products to the extent that it could not be adequately assessed solely through visual bridge inspections.”

The below road grade gusset to which the vertical member is attached is severely corroded and the rust is black and delaminating. It’s got two huge rust bubbles on this gusset protruding out maybe a quarter inch on each side and thick delaminated rust layers can clearly be seen. The gusset is below road level and it is exposed to a lot of salt in the winter. I suspect the significant vehicle contact bent the lower gusset in two places…this is where the cancerous rust is growing. For all the below road grade gussets I intensely inspected, this gusset is by far the worst…this is””way”” worse than any of the others.

NTSB 2007 Investigation into the Minneapolis I35 Bridge Collapse

Finding #21

“The Safety Board therefore concludes that because visual bridge inspections alone, regardless of their frequency, are inadequate to always detect corrosion on gusset plates or to accurately assess the extent or progression of that corrosion, inspectors should employ appropriate nondestructive evaluation technologies when evaluating gusset plates.”

I believe bending this gusset in a vehicle collision intensified the corrosion process and poor inspection allowed this condition to fester. This corrosion is so thick there just in no way to access the metal integrity underneath it. The thickness of the metal plate could be severely degraded and we have no idea if there are cracks developing in the gusset underneath the member damage and severely delaminating rust. This half inch gusset looks like it is an “inch” thick looking at it from the side.

NTSB 2007 Investigation into the Minneapolis I35 Bridge Collapse 

Probable Cause

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was the inadequate load capacity, due to a design error by Sverdrup & Parcel and Associates, Inc., of the gusset plates at the U10 nodes, which failed under a combination of (1) substantial increases in the weight of the bridge, which resulted from previous bridge modifications, and (2) the traffic and concentrated construction loads on the bridge on the day of the collapse. Contributing to the design error was the failure of Sverdrup & Parcel’s quality control procedures to ensure that the appropriate main truss gusset plate calculations were performed for the I-35W bridge and the inadequate design review by Federal and State transportation officials.

>>>Contributing to the accident was the generally accepted practice among Federal and State transportation officials of giving inadequate attention to gusset plates during inspections for conditions of distortion, such as bowing, and of excluding gusset plates in load rating analyses.<<<

It doesn’t look like the NHDOT did their mandatory gusset inspection of every similar style bridge coming out of the 2007 NTSB Minneapolis I 35 bridge collapse investigation…

NTSB 2007 Investigation into the Minneapolis I35 Bridge Collapse 

          Gusset plate: A metal plate used to unite multiple structural members of a truss.

 I believe the ‘Environmental Assessment BRATTLEBORO, VT – HINSDALE, NH TRANSPORTATION CORRIDOR BRF 2000(19)SC “ is severely incomplete and has a serious lack of granularity. The Environment Assessment report wasn’t observant enough with truck and car bridge interactions. They are keying off the NHDOT who have falsified their reports and they haven’t done independent evaluations of the structural condition of both bridges.

I will submit to you, there is way more tractor trailers and giant logging tractor trailers trucks than cement trucks.

This is how it should have been stated the truck and car interaction. The local population who crosses these bridges know what I am saying is accurate. Typically only one large semi and no cars can passage critical choke points at the same times. If the assessment is so incomplete with traffic interactions, why isn’t other assessment and analysis incomplete? 

Typically on both entrances of the Brattleboro Bridge, the vast majority of the semis stop before he enters the bridge. He is waiting for all the traffic to clear before he jumps onto the bridge. He is also waiting for a polite vehicle on the other side of the bridge to stop before enters the bridge. At multiple points, his cab has to jump into the opposing traffic lane so he can get his big butt “way back there” to make it around the protruding corner of the bridge. It take him many feet to get his big rig straighten out on the bridge. A lot of these semis, once on the bridge, ride in the middle of bridge straddling both lanes. He doesn’t want anyone on the bridge with him. Then he has to put his cab in the opposing traffic lane so his butt “way back there” will be able to make it around the corner. The sides of the bridge have drastically inadequate height…he could damage the trailer and bridge because the trailer is too high if he drive too close to the outside of the road. He drives in both lanes of traffic so his trailer won’t be damaged.  So that is another reason these semis take up the two lanes of this two lane bridge. They even do that on the Hinsdale Bridge even with no sharp corners and a straight approach in both directions. Even small trucks and the semis know the small truck can’t be on the bridge with the semi.

You can see the guard railing damage on both sides of the bridge when a semi driver misjudges this maneuver…it happens a lot.

I am saying this report severely minimizes the truck traffic and car problems with their passage through the critical choke points on the Hinsdale Route 119 bridges. They just weren’t very observant with their reporting. They are severely downplaying the condition of the bridge.

“Simultaneous passage of two large trucks at this curve, and on the bridges, is difficult.”

We are in a Town and locale emergency…it is a huge emergency. This report doesn’t state that clearly. We could lose the bridge at any moment…get draconian vehicle restrictions in the next second…lose lives in a bridge collapse.  These could hurt tens of thousands of people and many businesses. We are in a state NHDOT hurricane Katrina or Superstorm Sandy emergency…our New Hampshire state government has caught on fire and nobody has called 911 and the fire department yet.   

I am available to give tours explaining my pictures…especially for executives and engineers with the NHDOT, any government officials and the media. I will teach you a lot.  You should bring Dramamine and wear old jeans. Some areas would need you to be a little gutsy and you shouldn’t be too afraid of heights. Just give me a call or throw me email.

Mike Mulligan, Hinsdale, NH

16033368320 (fixed)

steamshovel2002@yahoo.com   

I was the instigator of one of the largest fraud criminal cases in the State of New Hampshire ($500 million -$600 million dollars and many people going to jail) . 

God only gives me the impossible cases….the problems everyone has given up on. They bring me into a problem when all hope is lost. I take the cases nobody else will touch. I am the prince of the improbable and the impossibility.

Sincerely,

Mike Mulligan

PO 161

Hinsdale, NH

Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed In Death At ANO

Entergy-Arkansas NuclearOne

That is what i thought. The state of management was dismal in ANO and it questions if even one plant should have been started up.

Everything about the NRC activities was to withhold information from the public in the timeframe after the event...get at least one plant up and operating before the knowlege of the management dysfuction was publically known.

Submitted by THV 11 News Staff

Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013, 5:55pm

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (KTHV) - The family of a man killed after a machinery accident at Nuclear One on March 31 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

The accident happened when a piece of machinery weighing 600 tons fell and killed 24-year-old Wade Walters. At least five other people were injured in the accident.

The suit states, "This is an action for wrongful death, ordinary negligence, negligent hiring, negligent training, negligent supervision, negligent retention, negligent hiring of an independent contractor, for declaratory judgment, and for punitive damages, stemming from multiple incidents of recklessness and negligence that lead to the collapse of an industrial crane on Easter Sunday, 2013, killing Wade Walters."

he suit, which was filed July 2 in Polk County Circuit Court, is filed against the following entities:

• Bigge Power Constructors
• Bigge Crane and Rigging Co.
• Bigge Group, Inc.
• Siemens Energy, Inc.
• DP Engineering, Inc.
• Entergy Arkansas, Inc.
• Entergy Operations, Inc.
• John Doe 1, John Doe 2, John Doe 3

The suit is being brought by the Estate of Wade Walters by Susan Allen, Administratrix of his estate and Walters' mother.  

Walters was employed by Precision Surveillance Corporation, which was contracted by Entergy Arkansas, Inc. and/or Entergy Operations, Inc. and/or Siemens Energy, Inc.

According to the suit, Entergy had scheduled downtime with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to remove the Main Turbine Generator Stator. If the process was not completed in the time agreed upon, Entergy would be fined. When Entergy tried to get the company they regularly use to move the Stator, the company said they couldn't do it safely in the time frame allowed; other companies concurred. Entergy eventually found a company who would perform the duty and opened Bigge was the lowest bidder, according to the suit.

If what the lawyers say is accurate, this means some of the agency’s important actions go on in a undocumented manner. I find it preposterous this would occur in a federal agency. I don’t believe the agency disclosed this in their investigation.

"If the process was not completed in the time agreed upon, Entergy would be fined."

 

The Third World State of NH Roads

We are wasting money repairing roads over and over…not taking the long view and fixing it right.

We are the transportation Guatemala of the USA.

With the issue of barely funding our road into a long decline…how does this make you feel?

I say screw it, don’t repair repair the roads, make them go around like they are going to make us go around when they close our bridge.

You know, this low population areas of the state is going to eat up all the monies of the rich and powerful southeastern NH high density areas. Let them eat cake! 

Soo, we are getting flooding wash aways of roads over and over again.

Just as a note last night, I'd seen pooling of water on my lawn I normally don't see...I got concerned about just how saturated the ground had become...

... Is our roads and transportation system resilient?

Flash flooding in region leads to road closure

Westmoreland flooding

Posted: Wednesday, July 3, 2013 9:30 am

Sentinel StaffSentinelSource.com | 0 comments

Heavy rain overnight hit the state and the region hard, causing flash flooding and a number of road closures. Gov. Maggie Hassan has declared a state of emergency in Cheshire, Sullivan and Grafton counties. She will be at Westmoreland School at 10, and then she is heading to the Alstead Town Offices.

In the region, Route 63 in Westmoreland, from South Village Road to Route 12 is closed, as is Route 12 from Route 63 to the Keene line. Motorists are being detoured from Route 12 to Interstate 91.

Other flood-damaged roads in the region that are closed area
Route 123 in Marlow from Marlow Village to the Alstead town line
Route 12A in Surry from Carpenter to Walpole Valley Road.
Route 123 in Alstead at Gilsum Mine Road.
The state is still working on detour routes.
Town road closures, as compiled by Southwestern N.H. District Fire Mutual Aid:
Alstead: Gilsum Mine Rd – 1 Lane Traffic
Alstead: Thayer Brook Rd by Corbin Rd – CLOSED
Alstead: Rt 12A north of Walpole Valley Rd – CLOSED
Alstead: 466 South Woods Rd – CLOSED
Alstead: rt 123 from fuller machine to 21 t/l close
Alstead: North Rd – CLOSED
Marlow: SGT Rd at Gustin Pond Rd closed
Putney, Vt: RT 5 at River Rd closed
Surry: Pond Rd at the dump closed
Surry: Old Walpole Rd 1/2 mile past Pond Rd closed
Surry: RT 12A Dort Rd and north closed
Walpole: North Rd closed at Matt Brook
Walpole: Christian Hollow -closed (County Rd/Watkins Hill Rd)
Westmoreland: RT 63 at Chickering Rd one lane washed out
Westmoreland: London Cross Rd closed by RT 12
Westmoreland: river rd north bridge gone by walpole town lin
Westmoreland: RT 12 FROM Keene town line TO RT 63 INTERSECTION CLOSED
Heavy rains caused flash flooding in Lebanon and Washington, too. In both towns, some residents were trapped in homes and had to be rescued, WMUR Television reported.

Booting NRC Chairmen MacFarland Out Of NRC

BS grandstanding for her San Onofre audience... 

The Senate has confirmed Allison Macfarlane for a new term as chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Macfarlane, a geologist, has led the commission since last year.

She said in a statement that she was honored to be nominated for a full five-year term as chairwoman and grateful for the Senate vote Thursday night to confirm her. She pledged to make the commission transparent and open to public engagement.

Macfarlane has sparred with Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California over access to commission documents related to the San Onofre nuclear plant in California. The plan's operator said earlier this month that it will shut down operations after a series of problems

Personally I don’t think she deserves a second term.

I’d seen the secrecy of the NRC intensify over the last two years and their extreme insecurity...

Basically the theme or system is…they got four or a majority of extremist right wing nuclear apologist as commissioners. The weak nuclear apologist gets thrown out of the nest to keep the agency disruptive and unorganized. That is what the nukies boys are looking for.

I’ll bet you the extremist commissioners are voting to withhold information to the Senator Boxer…thereby scapegoating the chairman. It is the same deal with how they got rid of Jascko.

So here we are 5 years into the Obama administration…with safety being checkmated by the right wing majority leaning nukie commissioners. Right, the go with the flow Obama and the ineffectual democrats...the fear of standing up to what your beliefs are…this is the world  they all brings us.

Macfarlane’s administration has been really weak because she never had deep knowledge of how nuclear power works…this past year she has been in training. So in order to survive, she had to take counsel with the polluted agency heads.

So Obama will replace her with another extremist nukie republican…just because it is the politically expedient way to go. It is the game he played all throughout his administration.   

So what will we happen if she gets booted? Personally I think Boxer is politically posturing…like she has been all through the San Onofre debacle. These plants have been spinning wildly out of control before the steam generator issue and she has had a inability to use her political power to bring the NRC under control to protect her population. Right, she only jumps in after the billion dollar accident to get her face into the media.

I honestly don’t know if Boxer’s tactics are bettering or obstructing the NRC. Sometimes your friends are really your enemies!

 

1)    Boxer will cave because all she wants is to get her name in the media.

2)    So I think Obama and Reid with have to get an extremist nukie in order to get nominated for the commission. With that, it is highly improbable she would gain the votes because all the republicans want to do is obstruct the administration.

3)    So they will go through till after the midterms with only four members…probably go through the next three years with only four commissioners.

4)    I would nominated Svinicki because she is the weakest…the nukie establishment will get blamed for the destruction or meltdown of a nuclear facility. Ostendorff is a close second because he would be attached to the nuclear establishment.

5)    The anti-nuclear establishment is dumber than rocks and they should get off the heavy use of pot.

June 20, 2013, 10:00

Tussle Over Nuclear Plant Documents May Sink N.R.C. Appointment

By MATTHEW L. WALD

The botched repair job that doomed a California nuclear plant has created a political whirlpool that may be close to claiming another victim: the chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The issue is no longer the plant itself, San Onofre, which the majority owner, Southern California Edison, announced on June 7 it would permanently close. The problem now is that Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, who is chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and a longtime critic of nuclear power, has been seeking documents from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the work the utility did and how the commission oversaw that work.
The chairwoman of the commission, Allison M. Macfarlane, agreed during her confirmation hearing to a blanket request to provide documents. Opponents of nuclear power say that some of the San Onofre documents could raise safety issues about plants that are still running. Ms. Boxer’s office said they could also influence California regulators as they decide who should pay the nearly $1 billion cost of addressing the failed repair.
The Senate committee and the nuclear commission are locked in a dispute over the documents, and Dr. Macfarlane’s term ends on June 30. President Obama — who appointed her to fill out the term of the previous chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko, who resigned under pressure last year — has nominated Dr. Macfarlane for a full five-year term, but Ms. Boxer is refusing to have the committee vote on the nomination until the argument over the documents is settled.

The Senate has only three meeting days left before June 30. Dr. Macfarlane, a geologist, has told friends that she has been offered a university teaching position and will accept it if she is not confirmed for a full term.
According to both sides, negotiations between the nuclear commission and the committee are continuing. The commission has been tight-lipped about the nature of the requests and the dispute. Eliot Brenner, a spokesman for the agency, said that Senator Boxer had asked for a variety of documents and that the commission had been “working diligently to provide her what we can.”
According to a spokeswoman for the Senate committee, some of the documents would come from investigations by the nuclear commission’s Office of Investigations and its inspector general, both of which could result in criminal charges. The commission is particularly circumspect about releasing such documents, but Congressional aides maintain that oversight committees have full access to them.
The commission says that some of its members have not approved the release of the documents, according to Senate committee staff members. Collegiality has been a particular goal of Dr. Macfarlane as she attempts to show a deliberate contrast to her predecessor, Dr. Jaczko, who was accused of acting unilaterally. But the extent to which she, as chairwoman of the commission, needs the concurrence of the other commissioners is also disputed.
One of the issues in the demise of San Onofre is the system that the nuclear commission uses to supervise major repair projects. If the new equipment has the same form and function as the old equipment, the review is far less deep than if it is a new type of equipment. In the San Onofre case, giant heat exchangers called steam generators were replaced, and the new generators differed enough from the original ones that they developed vibrations and one of them leaked.
Dozens of reactors have replaced their steam generators, and many more will probably do so in the future. Some nuclear advocates fear that if the documents cast doubt on the oversight process at San Onofre, they will also raise questions about safety at other reactors.
The prospect of losing Dr. Macfarlane has created an odd dynamic, and some experts with a long history of criticizing nuclear power are alarmed by the prospect. “I think that Macfarlane is the best thing to happen to the N.R.C. in a long time,” said Peter G. Crane, a former official in the commission’s legal office who has pressed the commission on several emergency preparedness and radiation safety issues. He praised Dr. Macfarlane’s openness and said, “The dispute over the San Onofre documents is of too little importance in the greater scheme of things for the chairmanship to stand or fall because of it.”
Of the other four members of the commission, two are Democrats and thus probably in line to be appointed chairman if necessary. The senior member is George E. Apostolakis, a risk assessment expert and nuclear engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

NRC’s Safety Culture Policy Statement

What does this mean... Enforcement

NRC’s Safety Culture Policy Statement

Sets forth the Commission’s expectation that individuals and organizations performing regulated activities establish and maintain a positive safety culture commensurate with the safety and security significance of their actions and the nature and complexity of their organizations and functions.

What does "commensurate with the safety and security significance" mean?

Licenced Operators Medical Qualification Problem

Licenced Operators Medical qualification problem.

You see how long it takes to come to terms with these problems beginning in 2007 in both Susquehanna and Pilgrim.

Why did these come out on this time...

SUSQUEHANNA STEAM ELECTRIC STATION – NRC IP 92701 FOLLOWUP INSPECTION REPORT 

Submitted by NUCBIZ on June 18, 2013 - 15:31

Since 2008, PPL has been issued three Severity Level (SL) IV violations and one SL III violation related to the medical qualifications of its licensed reactor operators. As a result of these, and other licensed operator reporting issues (some licensee-identified), PPL staff completed a detailed evaluation of these repetitive problems, PPL staff reviewed the medical records of all of its licensed operators and, as a result, on July 20, 2012, submitted ten medical updates to the NRC. Four of the ten updates involved permanent changes in medical conditions that had not been previously submitted within the required 30 days. The other six submittals involved conditions that PPL initially stated were being provided to the NRC “for information only.” However, the NRC independently identified (i.e., as a result of reviews conducted by the NRC contract physicians) that three of these six “Information Only” submittals actually involved operators with permanent changes in medical conditions. These medical conditions did not meet the minimum standards to conduct licensed activities and, therefore, the affected operators should have been removed from licensed activities or conditions added to their licenses before being permitted to continue watch standing. In addition, in December 2012, PPL submitted updates to the NRC for three other individuals that had medical conditions (sleep apnea) that had not been reported in a timely manner as required. Based on questioning of the Medical Review Officer (MRO) and examining physician, NRC inspectors in consultation with NRC contract physicians determined that the individuals did not have the requisite knowledge of the American National Standards Institute/American Nuclear Society (ANSI/ANS) 3.4-1983, "American National Standard Medical Certification and Monitoring of Personnel Requiring Operator Licenses for Nuclear Power Plants."

I think because there is knowingly no consequences over these issues...it happened.

This usually occurs because the utilities get behind in generating licences...then they can't afford to lose any.  

PILGRIM NUCLEAR POWER STATION – NRC INVESTIGATION REPORT NO.1-2012-013 AND NRC INSPECTION REPORT NO. 05000293/2011005 

The first apparent violation being considered for escalated enforcement involved multiple examples occurring at various times from March 2008 through October 11, 2011, of PNPS licensed operators not meeting certain medical prerequisites for performing NRC-licensed operator activities, and the licensed operators engaging in NRC-licensed activities without ENO obtaining prior NRC approval, as required by Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Section 55.33. Specifically, in one example, a licensed reactor operator, during a medical exam on December 1, 2010, had a blood pressure reading that exceeded the limit specified in ANSI/ANS 3.4-1983, “Medical Certification and Monitoring of Personnel Requiring Operator Licenses for Nuclear Power Plants,” which is the standard to which PNPS certified it conducts its medical exams. The NRC inspectors determined that the Pilgrim Medical Examiner (ME) who conducted the exam was not knowledgeable of the ANSI standard or the minimum acceptable criteria contained therein. As a result, in spite of the RO’s high blood pressure reading, the ME determined the operator to be medically qualified to continue to conduct licensed activities based on his own medical opinion, although the ME did not document a basis for this determination. The ME also failed to notify the facility licensee of the RO’s medical condition. Therefore, the facility licensee did not obtain from the NRC a conditional license for the RO indicating that, in order to continue to conduct licensed activities, the RO must take medication as prescribed to meet the minimum medical requirements.
The NRC also identified examples involving five licensed operators (3 ROs and 2 senior reactor operators (SROs)) who, at various times from March 2008 through October 11, 2011, were not administered stamina tests as part of their required biennial exams and, therefore, did not receive complete biennial exams. The stamina test should have been conducted to assure the operators met the ANSI/ANS 3.4-1983 respiratory and cardiovascular requirements that licensed operators respectively have the capacity and reserve to perform strenuous physical exertion in emergencies and have a tolerance to postural changes and capacity for exertion during emergencies. However, the NRC inspectors identified that the ME did not administer thestamina tests to these licensed operators at the time of their biennial examinations because of various ailments and disabilities reported to him by the operators at the time of the exams. The ME did not document the basis for these decisions or notify the facility licensee of the operators’conditions.

Palisades Nuclear Plant Is Back?

So they were at 3% last night at midnight...

Palisades Tank Leak Repaired — Safe to Restart

by Moderator

Prema Chandrathil

Region III Public Affairs Officer

After intense NRC scrutiny that confirmed the plant is safe to operate, the Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan restarted yesterday after more than a month shutdown.

In total 10 NRC inspectors performed a wide range of inspections to ensure the leak in a refueling water tank, the reason for the shutdown, was fixed.

Entergy employees identified a leak from the tank on May 5.The leak exceeded the level Entergy had committed to the NRC, which required the plant to shut down to ensure structural integrity of the tank...

So from May 6 to today is about 41 days...plus another month of shutdown...

Isn't that pathetic with all that work they can't guarantee no more leaks...

If small leaks are discovered we expect Entergy to evaluate them according to the NRC’s rules, and take appropriate action

 

 43 days!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entergy-Pilgrim Nuclear Plant SRVs Again

The old NRC two step with not answering me? I ask for it to be put on the docket...sound like it won't.

I bet you they don't like me pointing fingers on the guy who signed the LER....

This is a habit of the NRC... minimizing the NRC's profile...not giving me a reason for it.

From: "Guzman, Richard" nrc.gov>
To: 'Michael Mulligan'
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2013 6:20 PMSubject: RE: 2.206 Petition re: Pilgrim Nuclear Plant SRVs - PRB Teleconference 6/11/13, 3  

Mr. Mulligan, 

The PRB has received your messages below and it will be included in the Board’s consideration of your 2.206 petition request. 

Sincerely, 

Rich GuzmanSr. Project ManagerNRR/DORL/LPL1-1US NRC

So they interpret "deliberate" and "intent"...it is all a educated word game...they make these regulation unenforceable. They use regulations in a way that doesn't control the bad behavior of the licencee or the NRC itself. The hurdle of the standard is so high you need the culprit to admit his intent and it being deliberate...that is how the industry weakened federal oversight. 

The NRC needs unattainable proof of deliberateness and intention... 

§ 50.9 Completeness and accuracy of information.

(a) Information provided to the Commission by an applicant for a license or by a licensee or information required by statute or by the Commission's regulations, orders, or license conditions to be maintained by the applicant or the licensee shall be complete and accurate in all material respects

§ 50.5 Deliberate misconduct.

(a) Any licensee, applicant for a license, employee of a licensee or applicant; or any contractor (including a supplier or consultant), subcontractor, employee of a contractor or subcontractor of any licensee or applicant for a license, who knowingly provides to any licensee, applicant, contractor, or subcontractor, any components, equipment, materials, or other goods or services that relate to a licensee's or applicant's activities in this part, may not:

(1) Engage in deliberate misconduct that causes or would have caused, if not detected, a licensee or applicant to be in violation of any rule, regulation, or order; or any term, condition, or limitation of any license issued by the Commission; or

(2) Deliberately submit to the NRC, a licensee, an applicant, or a licensee's or applicant's contractor or subcontractor, information that the person submitting the information knows to be incomplete or inaccurate in some respect material to the NRC.

(b) A person who violates paragraph (a)(1) or (a)(2) of this section may be subject to enforcement action in accordance with the procedures in 10 CFR part 2, subpart B.

(c) For the purposes of paragraph (a)(1) of this section, deliberate misconduct by a person means an intentional act or omission that the person knows:

(1) Would cause a licensee or applicant to be in violation of any rule, regulation, or order; or any term, condition, or limitation, of any license issued by the Commission; or

(2) Constitutes a violation of a requirement, procedure, instruction, contract, purchase order, or policy of a licensee, applicant, contractor, or subcontractor.

[63 FR 1897, Jan 13, 1998]

From: Michael Mulligan 

To: "Guzman, Richard"
Sent: Thursday, June 13, 2013 5:19 PM
Subject: Re: 2.206 Petition re: Pilgrim Nuclear Plant SRVs - PRB Teleconference 6/11/13, 3-4p

Mr Guzman,

In addition:

So I am saying Entergy’s Ralph A. Dodds, III (Director, Nuclear Safety Assurance) intentionally materially mis-represented the facts and falsified a federal document with a signature…in that he stated there were “no” three stage SRV leakage problems anywhere out in the nuclear industry in LER 2011-007-00.

I request that the NRC charge him with falsification?

LER 20011-007-00
“There are no previous first stage leakage occurrences with these safety relief valves since all four Safety Relief Valves were newly installed in April/May, 2011, during Refueling Outage 18." 

"However, the industry has experienced leakage with otherTarget Rock Model safety relief valves at other plants."

This below sentence in 2013-02-00 indicts Mr. Dodds in LER 2011-007-00. Doesn't this whole deal with the SRVs remind us of the Palisades SIRWT? In the LER letter dated of Feb 27, 2013, “he knew or should have known” that many plants with Target Rock three stage SRV where leaking. Including new valves upon first startup.

"The industry has experienced numerous instances where SRV leakage has occurred at other plants with other Target Rock Model three stage safety relief valves"

You should consider a model of a SRV valve as having three stages and near identical design independent of size…

As a note, per 10 CFR 21 bellows failure event report number # 4896, this implies they are the same model and all leakers.

"The following plants are running with bellows P/N303480-1 installed: Limerick 1 & 2, Pilgrim, and J.A. Fitzpatrick."

It is neat how he restructured the below sentence...it is close, but with a completely different meaning. It is not new information!

2013: "The industry has experienced numerous instances where SRV leakage has occurred at other plants with other Target Rock Model three stage safety relief valves"

...2011: "However, the industry has experienced leakage with other Target Rock Model safety relief valves at other plants."

I never have any anonymity or confidentially needs!

He lied about no past "leakage" in VY SRVs and no leaks in three stage relief valves...

Mike

I get it, the NRC won’t find anyone to indict themselves or their buddies in the group. Not enough evidence Mike, again.










The documents are contaminated much like a brain surgeon using the bathroom and then not washing his hand…then going back to your open brain surgery and sticking his ungloved fingers in your open brain.

It is as dirty as that…with as much consequences and significance…

LER: 2011-007-00: SRV Declared Inoperable Due to Leakage12/26/2011

LER: 2011-007-01: Declared Inoperable D dated12/21/2013

LER: 2013-002-00, SRV-3B SRV Declared Inoperable Dueto Leakage and Setpoint Drift  01/20/2013

From: Michael Mulligan
To: "Guzman, Richard"
Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2013 12:16 PM
Subject: Re: 2.206 Petition re: Pilgrim Nuclear Plant SRVs - PRB Teleconference 6/11/13, 3-4p

Mr Guzman,

Could you add this as an addendum to this 2.206? (Allegation). I am trying to better explain the question posed to me in the 2.206 yesterday.

The intentional falsification was…Entergy intentionally gave incomplete information to me and the public to make the leaking problem seem smaller than it really was from 2011-007-02. The quality of the information on the first LER and its update is pathetic.

This is a highly technical and complex endeavor. You could swamp the good citizen with a technical nuance they wouldn’t understand that is technically correct…but on big picture it could be a flagrant falsification with tricky technical wording.

The pattern is, they submit a abysmally inaccurate first LER..they slowly correct  it over many years. Or some of the misinformation. The product of the misinformation isn't newly developed information...it is just sloppiness.

The truth was there were three leaks…two from the C second stage and one from the D pilot valve in LER 20011-007-00. In LER 2011-007-00 Entergy only admitted to one leak.

The first LER states only that the 3D pilot valve was repaired/ replace and retested…no talk with fixing the 3C second stage. No correcting it on the update. Trying to make a San Onofre low profile…like to get them to the outage and forgo a public hearing? We know there is no hearing with Pilgrim…but does Entergy has the San Onofre disease of doing whatever they can to limit public exposure up to and including severely sabotaging themselves.

Yea, wink, wink, we believe you four month later you actually fixed it...you just forgot to put it in the federal documents.

What was the motivation to only admit one leak?

So why didn’t Entergy state honestly in 2011 that these are all the leaks we had to date: two with the 3C second stage and one leak with the 3D pilot valve?

I think they were being intentionally word tricky…gaming language in the ends of obscuring the truth… with only admitting the first stage leak. And then not to admit the second stage leak until many months later? Is it going on throughout the industry thanks to The Three Wise Monkeys "see and hear no evil" NRC.

LER 2011-007-00
“There are no previous first stage leakage occurrences with these safety relief valves since all four Safety Relief Valves were newly installed in April/May, 2011, during Refueling Outage 18.”

LER 2013-002-02
"On May 18, 2011 and November 25, 2011, SRV RV 203-3C second stage pilot valve minor leakage was observed."

Is this below called being a professional engineer or a highly competent safety engineering organization? How can you trust the honesty Entergy…did they address the 3C or didn’t they?

LER 2007-007-00 says the second stage wasn’t addressed. Why didn’t the NRC make them fix the inaccuracy? If they can't keep their federal safety paperwork straight...should they operate a nuclear plant? You can't yank a license for the NRC to oversee nuclear power plant? We think the first LER is the most important.

Again, it is beyond atrocious since 2011 the NRC allows Pilgrim get away with not understanding what has caused these "new" leaking valves, with all the shutdowns and power reductions.

LER 20011-007-00
“The identified condition is a leaking SRV pilot. Based on a review of plant data, the only pilot to exhibit signs of leakage is RV-203-3D. The leaking pilot has been replaced."

"The pilot stage of RV-203-3D was removed. Following the shutdown, RV-203-3D was repaired with a new pilot valve and the plant was returned to full power operation."

LER 2013-002-02

“On December 26, 2011, SRV, RV-203-3D first stage pilot valve experienced leakage that exceeded the operability criteria while operating at full power. Plant was shutdown as required by TS 3.6.D.2, RV 203-3C and 3D were repaired and the plant returned to full power operation.”

Entergy is implying the three stage SRV shows no indication of ever having leakage. This is how college educated do falsifying federal document? Hyper technically correct, but holistically on the big picture lying through their teeth?

It depends on what the meaning of is, is? Or “model” or when to insert “three stage relief”?

The first implies there is no concern of industry wide issue with the three stage SRV valves, the second implies there are widespread issues with leaking three stage relief valves.

Adding three stages to the sentence on 2013-02 flagrantly changes the meaning of the sentence. These guys are college educated and their bosses….I don’t buy it this is unintentional. The intent was to use sparse technical working that maybe a technical insider would understand…but outsiders would interpret it in a different fashion. Its intent was to be deceptive to outsiders and prevent them from participating in licensing and operating safety issues.

I could give the NRC other examples, exactly like this on inaccurate LERS …the VY SRV treaded seal?

LER 20011-007-00
"However, the industry has experienced leakage with other Target Rock Model safety relief valves at other plants."

LER 2013-002-02
‘The industry has experienced numerous instances where SRV leakage has occurred at other plants with other Target Rock Model three stage safety relief valves”

The only way you can make this below statement true is see and calculate the whole cohort of risk with leaking SRV valves. Like testing and measuring in all leaking SRV valves the opening set point inaccuracy throughout the industry…does leaking SRVs cause set point inaccuracy and figure out the prevalence of it to put into the risk analysis calculation?

Again they are using isolated single event risk when everyone knows it is a common mode failure for all four SRVs…admitted in this LER. They have no idea yet what was the casual factor with the leaking valves or bellows failure.

Any safety risk analyses engineer worth is salt would know the 1.OE-7 number is a complete falsification and is totally inaccurate within this issues with leaking SRV global safety. The idea you could “bound safety” without understanding the issues that caused this. These guys are “superstitious witch doctors” not based on science!

A well trodden tool to knowingly overstate safety at a nuclear plant.

LER 2013-002-02
"The impact of setpoint drift (0.8% below the 3% tolerance) is considered to be bounded by delta change in core damage frequency of less than 1.OE-7."

"Pilot S/N 23 RV-203-3B
SRV Position 23 RV-203-3B
As-Found Deviation 23 RV-203-3B"

Again, this below admission in this late stage was to prettify 2011-007-00. It takes them basically two inaccurate LER federal documents and four months to come clean.

LER 2013-002-02
“During the outage for RV-203-3D, the entire RV 203-3C was replaced with a new valve.”

Sincerely,

Mike Mulligan

Hinsdale, NH

Officials Discuss New Hinsdale-Brattleboro bridge

June 7

Told you...the battle of the dead and dying NH bridges...

"I bet you it will only be a matter of days before Bellow Falls comes begging to the Reformer to create a article about their bridge woes."

Vt. town considers meeting on closed bridge

Posted: Jun 07, 2013 7:15 AM EDTUpdated: Jun 07, 2013 7:15 AM EDT

ROCKINGHAM, Vt. (AP) - A Vermont town selectboard is thinking of holding a public meeting on a bridge that's been closed for four years to bring more attention to it.
The well-traveled Vilas Bridge over the Connecticut River was closed in 2009 after an inspection found continued deterioration of the bridge deck.

The bridge, which Bellows Falls, Vt., to Walpole, N.H., was built in 1930. It's been on New Hampshire's Red List of troubled bridges for more than 20 years, but there are no immediate plans to repair it, partly because of funding challenges and nearby travel alternatives, such as the Arch Bridge.

The Claremont Eagle-Times (http://bit.ly/19Oz9vF) reports the selectboard in Rockingham brought up the idea at a board meeting this week. Officials would also invite selectmen from neighboring Walpole and North Walpole, N.H.
Information from: Eagle Times, http://www.eagletimes.com

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

See, the political code language of the DOT an the state politicians...you got to get red listed before they will even think of replacing the bridge..

The N.H. Department of Transportation will hold a public information meeting June 12 about a proposed Keene bridge rehabilitation project on Elm Street. The bridge carries Routes 9 and 10 over Elm Street. 

The meeting, which will be part of the City Council’s municipal services, facilities and infrastructure meeting, will give information about the proposed project to residents and public officials. Public input is encouraged.

The bridge is one of 10 in Keene that have been “red-listed” by the transportation department,

Typical Reformer...too lazy to get a current picture. I bet you it will only be a matter of days before Bellow Falls comes begging to the Reformer to create a article about their bridge woes.

Out delapatated bridge wars between Hinsdale/Bratt and Bellow Falls...

 

 

Officials discuss new Hinsdale-Brattleboro bridge

By DOMENIC POLI / Reformer Staffreformer.com

Posted: 06/04/2013 03:00:00 AM EDT

June 4, 2013 11:1Updated: 06/04/2013 07:12:10 AM EDT

  (Zachary P. Stephens/Brattleboro Reformer)

Tuesday June 4, 2013

 

BRATTLEBORO - Representatives from Vermont and New Hampshire on Monday decided a timeline must be carefully mapped out in order to start building a structure replacing two bridges that are considered "functionally obsolete," yet still safe for traffic.
 

Fourteen people convened in a second-floor room of the Brattleboro Municipal Center to discuss strategies for improving the bridge project's readiness and prepare arguments for the project's inclusion in the New Hampshire Ten Year Plan.
 

Attendees included JB Mack, the principal planner for the Southwest Region Planning Commission, Hinsdale Selectman Jay Ebbinghausen, N.H. State Rep. Bill Butynski (D-Hinsdale, Chesterfield, Winchester), Vt. State Rep. Mollie Burke, a Brattleboro Democrat and a member of the State House Transportation Committee, and Mark Richardson, Administrator Bureau of Bridge Design at the N.H. Department of Transportation.
 

Danny Landry, project manager at the Vermont Agency of Transportation, took part in the discussion via speakerphone.
 

The next significant milestone for the project is a public hearing regarding the environmental assessment document, which Landry said should be ready within the next week or so. There will be another meeting similar to Monday's following the public hearing, which is expected to be held this month.
 

Brattleboro is now connected to Hinsdale, N.H., by two Pennsylvania truss bridges that were built in 1920. The Anna Hunt  Marsh Bridge connects Brattleboro to Hinsdale Island, which is connected to Hinsdale by the Charles Dana Bridge. Mack previously told the Reformer that federal highway standards dictate the bridges are too narrow and have insufficient weight limits and vertical clearances.

According to New Hampshire's website, the purpose of the Ten Year Plan is "to develop and implement a plan allowing New Hampshire to fully participate in federally supported transportation improvement projects as well as to outline projects and programs funded with State transportation dollars." The plan would be used to rehabilitated the two existing bridges.
 

Everyone at the meeting agreed Vermont and New Hampshire cannot afford to have the two bridges "red-listed," or closed due to deficiencies within the next 10 years. Therefore, everyone said it is vital to start constructing a bridge that will replace them. It would begin near the stop light at the former Walmart location, span the Connecticut River, the southern portion of Hinsdale Island and the Merrill Gas Company tank farm on Vernon Road and then touch down near Brattleboro's "malfunction junction." The older bridges would be rehabilitated and would still be used for pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

Domenic Poli can be reached at dpoli@reformer.com, or 802-254-2311, ext. 277. You can follow him on Twitter @dpoli_reformer.