The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and Northwestern University are bragging about embedded sensors in the Devon-Sheridan Bridge to measure how much the structure bends when trains pass over. Sounds good until you hear the rest of the story.
The Chicago Tribune reported last week, “Each day, thousands of CTA elevated trains operate across 564 bridges, many 80 to 100 years old.
The crumbling bridges, some inspected monthly and others every two years, pose a potential danger to CTA passengers as well as to motorists and pedestrians who pass under the viaducts. But the CTA, saddled with a backlog totaling $7 billion in unfunded capital-improvement needs, can't afford to replace bridges.
The antiquated bridges have exceeded their useful life, experts say. They remain open due, in part, to luck. The bridges were built to carry steam locomotives, which generate approximately four times the load of a moving CTA rail car, said CTA chief engineer James Harper.”
So instead of being excited that ONE bridge is being monitored for safety, we have to worry about the other 563 that aren’t! Why is the CTA proud of this?
The Tribune also reported that, “CTA officials hope over time to expand the monitoring to at least some other bridges and to add Web cameras to create a visual record, including the common problem of trucks hitting viaduct support columns and taking out pieces of concrete, or getting wedged under the crossing, which has a clearance of only 12 feet 10 inches.”
They “hope over time” to expand the monitoring system? Do we have the time to wait? Since is costs $35,000 for each system, the cost to install at every bridge would be 19,705,000 (I learned how to multiply in my honors classes in school,) and the CTA’s budget is already straining at the seams—just like the bridges! Replacement dates for the bridges remain indefinite until funding is identified, officials said.
Does CTA President Richard Rodriguez think “truthiness” when he allows CTA trains and buses to travel over bridges without worry of an accident? (For the uninformed “truthiness” is a word coined by Stephen Colbert which is a "truth" that a person claims to know intuitively "from the gut" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination or facts.) The logic here supports that Chicago will have a bridge collapse, yet buses and el trains keeps rumbling on.
Bridge collapses in Minneapolis, Minn., Orovill, California, Webbers Fall, Okla, Texas' Queen Isabella Causeway, Amsterdam, N.Y., and the country’s most deadly when the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida collapsed killing 35 people and the Silver Bridge collapse over the Ohio River that killed 45 people should have us in trembling in fear when driving over Chicago’s bridges.
I forgot. The CTA has no money for repairs. Maybe if we stopped the freeloading senior fares (including the dead riders) there would be some more cash for repairs.
Just like London Bridge, Chicago bridges are falling down! Or soon will be!
THE LYRICS
London Bridge is broken down,
Falling down, falling down.
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.
Build it up with wood and clay,
Wood and clay, wood and clay,
Build it up with wood and clay,
My fair lady.
Wood and clay will wash away,
Wash away, wash away,
Wood and clay will wash away,
My fair lady.
Build it up with bricks and mortar,
Bricks and mortar, bricks and mortar,
Build it up with bricks and mortar,
My fair lady.
Bricks and mortar will not stay,
Will not stay, will not stay,
Bricks and mortar will not stay,
My fair lady.
Build it up with iron and steel,
Iron and steel, iron and steel,
Build it up with iron and steel,
My fair lady.
Iron and steel will bend and bow,
Bend and bow, bend and bow,
Iron and steel will bend and bow,
My fair lady.
Build it up with silver and gold,
Silver and gold, silver and gold,
Build it up with silver and gold,
My fair lady.
Silver and gold will be stolen away,
Stolen away, stolen away,
Silver and gold will be stolen away,
My fair lady.
Set a man to watch all night,
Watch all night, watch all night,
Set a man to watch all night,
My fair lady.
Suppose the man should fall asleep,
Fall asleep, fall asleep,
Suppose the man should fall asleep?
My fair lady.
Give him a pipe to smoke all night,
Smoke all night, smoke all night,
Give him a pipe to smoke all night,
My fair lady.
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