It's obvious Caltrans screwed up big time.
The new Eastern-span Bay Bridge is a colossal screw-up. All the experts in the bridge business say its an utter mess.
Bad bolts and bad rods. Lots of 'em.
It sure looks nice, but a whole bunch of people in the know say it's simply unsafe. One engineer, the renowned Dr. Hassan Astaneh, from UC Berkeley, says he wouldn't drive over the bridge.
I'll ask him why and you can too today from 1-2 PM on the KSCO/KOMY radio show, (M-F, 1-4 PM PT, Live)...Click the streaming audio link on the "Lieberman Show" homepage and call in/listen live or later on a podcast. The phone number is 831-477-1340.
**Follow me on Twitter
The whole Bay Bridge story is a sorrid, self-serving mess. This shit storm started when the politicians had to spend globs of money to figure out how the bridge was going to look. The populace should've known bad times were ahead when this started all of the fun. Now there's a ton of money (probably most of it taxpayer financed) that's gone out the window on this thing. And if the bolts are no f+++ing good, a lot of people will be screaming bloody hell. Like KPIX. How much do you want to bet that companies and people with lots to lose will try their damndest to get the bridge opened on time...regardless of the consecquences? Greedy selfish bastards. All of them.
ReplyDeleteIt looks to me an old story. Instead of the proven twin tower suspension bridge,Caltrans and politicians wanted cutting edge single tower design. Oh,that has been done other places..but knowing California, just the single span idea was used,and they decided they could do it better with all knew earthquake reinforcing.
ReplyDeleteI mean,who made the decision to order thousands of bolts...and STORE THEM ON THE BRIDGE?..open to salt air for years now. Wow- that's what my buddy Vern does with his old Camaro parts in his backyard. Metal integrity compromised? RUST? eh,,just brush it off. wow.
In addition...doesn't this remind you of that weird big sign on some building next to the 880 freeway in Oakland?." Stop metal(something)casting". Oh man. Truth strange then fiction.
Interesting listening today on this topic Rich!
ReplyDeleteYou're being sarcastic, right?
DeleteNo it was really good. You must have missed it.
DeleteFor years Barbara Simpson has been saying the new Bay Bridge is unsafe. At first I thought it was her typical right-wing paranoia talking. Now it seems like she was on to something all along.
ReplyDelete> At first I thought it was her typical right-wing paranoia talking.
Delete> Now it seems like she was on to something all along.
Or both...
yo, Mr. Dip S at 5:16. There's nothing paranoid about facing such government incompetence head on. It's bravery. If its one thing we need as a people at this time, its those who view truth seekers and tellers to face what their proving straight up without any political bias.
DeleteWell now the Media can save Gas from Driving to Walnut Creek. They can Now just Sit at the Toll Plaza waiting for the Bridge to Fall over. Win Win
ReplyDeleteThe citizens of the Bay Area should launch a Save Our Old Bay Bridge campaign before it's too late!
ReplyDeleteNot gonna happen.
DeleteConcentrate your efforts on squashing the high speed rail project...the next great fiasco.
Several years ago I bumped into a reporter, who used to work for the Chronicle and who was now doing a stint at one of the TV stations--famous name, Bay Area legend and all that--and he told me he knew of so much corruption and substandard work on the project it was mind-boggling, BUT he could not report on it because technically he didn't have courtroom-level evidence and so he and his station would get sued out of existence. But he said the costs were inflated by at least half.
ReplyDeleteLooks like we're starting to see the tip of the iceberg in this. I'm not so sure I'd drive over the span either. They'd better not tear that old one down right away. They might still need it.
This mess is nothing compared with the "big dig" in Boston which costs federal and state taxpayers many Billions. Talk about corruption and substandard work. A woman died when a concrete ceiling block dropped on her car while she driving through one of the new access tunnels. Substandard glue. Who knew? The corrupt politicians and their contractor friends raked in the bucks at our expense on that boondoggle.
DeleteNothing changes on either coast. God protect the people on that bridge when an earthquake hits. They will need the "support".
The new Bay Bridge is a piece of JUNK!
ReplyDeleteThe brain child of a stupid Governor.
Interesting guy, funny too.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't really surprised to find that the commission steered the work away from retrofitting the existing at 1/3 the price or how the work got steered to those with connections, just surprised to actually hear an insider say it out loud.
Thought it was bad manners to ask the doc to stay an additional hour, then mention that you were trying to get dr bill to chime in and steal his thunder. His time is valuable, kindly appreciate his willingness and generosity : (
PS, glad I called to get the volume between rich and the bridge doc evened out. That was brutally annoying.
I recall the Chronicle did a piece with a whistleblower who called out the bolts as being deficient back then. This was 5 years ago or so. I assume now it's the bolts in question today, but I can't say for sure.
ReplyDeleteSo, yah, this is kind of an old story, but with striking new relevance. Well, what with the state of the DOJ these days and what that represents as a cascading effect of corruption from top to bottom, how much longer are we plebes gonna sit and take it and let the 3rd world nature of our process of governing continue?
How bout somebody get that court approved evidence and take the whole system to task. have the tail wag the dog for a bit of time at the very least.
Hassan Astaneh is clearly no fool.
ReplyDeleteIt's no longer case of if they're lying, since this has long been established - rather it's a case of why they're lying!
I consider myself to be a rational person. Having said that, I have no plans to drive the new Bay Bridge unless I absolutely have to. I will wait for it to go through a good quake first and see how it stands up. If it passes, then I will use it regularly. But at this point.....Nah, I'll wait.
Yes Barbara has been talking about this for years, and has had the professor on several times. I listen to Barbara's show for fairly often, although for the most part I totally disagree with her. However, as for the bridge Bill Wattenburg had reservations about it's safety. Ronn Owens had professor Astanhi on today (or was it yesterday?) when someone from the right, the middle and the somewhat left has the same guest on, it tell me there is something there. Kind of scary, seeing that most of us living in the Bay Area crosses the Bay Bridge, if not often, several times a year.
ReplyDeleteRich, this is the type of show you should do on a regular basis. You redeemed yourself after yesterday's fiasco. Bravo! I hope you bring back Dr. Astaneh next week to finish the interview. I wonder if you could bring in Dr. Bill to ask him his thoughts on the subject...?
ReplyDeleteHe'll be on this Wednesday, June 5, from 2-4 PM on both KSCO and KOMY. I have a lot more questions.
DeleteThank you for your kind words.
Rich, Good move.
DeleteRich, is there a way to get your shows on iTunes or are they there and I missed 'em last time I checked? I'm working when your show is on, usually.
ReplyDelete