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WSDOT gets the Bridge Open!

1K views 22 replies 14 participants last post by  jersey 
#1 ·
I am Happy to say that my WSDOT fellow employees got the JOB done well and
I think in a timely fashion. I hope you will maybe have a little more Respect for
The worker's ' no agency is perfect but I think it was at least one positive kudo
For a state agency that is not very well understood by those looking from the outside
In.
Kelly Michelsen
 
#4 ·
Yep, congrats on a speedy reopening. On time and under budget because the focus was getting a road reopened. Seems most of our transportation projects are nothing more than jobs programs. Track record speaks for itself.

In this case we saw what could happen when the focus was about getting vehicles moving again.
 
#6 ·
I and most of the people involved with the work have nothing to do with budgets, I was congratulating
my fellow workers not, Management or the New leadership within the Department.
Its always frustrating to have people that have no idea what it takes to do the job. We are not
PERFECT SHINNING EXAMPLE but I try to give people and groups the benefit of the doubt
especially when I feel like there are know it alls that just don't know what they are talking about
continue to spout off like we are all pigs at the trough.
Kelly Michelsen
 
#7 ·
I and most of the people involved with the work have nothing to do with budgets, I was congratulating
my fellow workers not, Management or the New leadership within the Department.
Its always frustrating to have people that have no idea what it takes to do the job. We are not
PERFECT SHINNING EXAMPLE but I try to give people and groups the benefit of the doubt
especially when I feel like there are know it alls that just don't know what they are talking about
continue to spout off like we are all pigs at the trough.
Kelly Michelsen
Not criticizing you guys for doing the best you can with what you have. That said, infrastructure across the US is underfunded and in a state of disrepair because of budgetary malfeasance by politicians more interested in shiny social programs that'll get em re-elected.
 
#11 ·
#13 ·
I haven't been south of the river since that thing fell down. Nice job getting a temp in place. It will be cool to see how the permanent section is built and placed. I have some understanding of what it took to get this done. I worked for Wilder Construction Company for 12 years. We built many bridges around the state. There is nothing easy about building bridges. Let alone getting a repair in place in such a short time frame. Not a nice job, a great job.
 
#14 ·
WSDOT surprised me with how quickly they got this temporary span up and in service and how quickly the permanent replacement span is scheduled to be up and in use as well. KUDOS to all involved for doing so!

Now if only most bridge replacements (or hwy repaving) could be accomplished as this one was without the ad naseum studies/reviews that take a year or more before any work can be done. I mean why does there need to be a study that includes economic impacts for repaving a section of road that needs it? And since repaving an existing road would have minimal ecological impacts, why is it necessary to do a study on the impacts before work can begin to repave the road?

Let us not forget that if the Governor had not declared a "State of Emergency" for the bridge, that there would have been an environmental review before the pieces of the downed section could have been removed from the river, the temporary span designed, the temporary span put in place, the permanent replacement designed, and the permanent replacement put in place. Even the newspapers mentioned since there was a "state of emergency" declared by the governor, work was allowed to proceed very quickly without all the reviews and resultant delays the reviews create.

In my opinion, repaving and bridge replacement ought be able to proceed with minimal to no new impact studies and reviews. Afterall, the road or bridge already exists and its impacts have been existent for as long as it has been in place, so why the need for a new and extensive review to repair or replace that which already exists? Oh yeah, I forgot, they are needed because it creates jobs and helps protect everyone from an improved road.
 
#15 ·
In my opinion, repaving and bridge replacement ought be able to proceed with minimal to no new impact studies and reviews. Afterall, the road or bridge already exists and its impacts have been existent for as long as it has been in place, so why the need for a new and extensive review to repair or replace that which already exists? Oh yeah, I forgot, they are needed because it creates jobs and helps protect everyone from an improved road.
There are some things that need to be done even for repaving projects. I have been out of the business for awhile but even some repaving projects now require that every drop of water that falls on that road needs to be accounted for. Which usually means creating a drainage plan of some sort and possibly building retention ponds and bio swales or some other means of treating the water. Most of this is done to protect water quality of the very water the fish you like to fish for live in. A large portion of water pollution comes from the roads you drive on.
 
#17 ·
I know that sometimes it takes months to get a permit and federal fish windows, state fish windows,
environmental assessments, and if you are dealing with the BNSF 6 months to just get a permit. I am
an Inspector on a lot of projects, I don't pretend to know what all it takes in the Design phase, but I here about it. I am glad for all the precautions for the environment and fish and wildlife. but the nightmare of paperwork is daunting even on a small projects, not just for the environment and fish and wildlife, just the paperwork involved in the normal process of a project. If there are multiple agencies involved it can really
get mired down quickly especially the USFS. I hope that helps.
Kelly Michelsen
 
#19 ·
Kelly,

Your post gets to the heart of what I was talking about. Multiple agencies, all who require their own paperwork, even if in the end what they want is what some other agency required, just in a slightly different form to satisfy their own paper reviewer/creator. It makes no sense to me to have each agency require the same things to be submitted in their own paper format and forms. The amount of time and cost to do so adds considerably to the price of a repaving or bridge replacement, as well as causing it to take much, much longer to get completed and in use.
 
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