Now 80, George Washington Will Soon Undergo The Bridge Equivalent Of Hip Replacement

[alp227]

Source: NYT

The George Washington Bridge is a cathedral of steel cables and beams, a stark, glimmering span that has become a civil engineering landmark, not to mention the busiest vehicular bridge in the world.

But now, at 80, it is in need of a thorough overhaul.

On Thursday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s board authorized $15.5 million for repairs, part of the more than $1 billion that the project will eventually cost; agency officials want to clean the bridge’s four main cables and also replace, for the first time, all of the 592 vertical suspender ropes that hold up the roadway.

The overhaul is long overdue, Port Authority officials said; comparable bridges normally have their wires replaced after 70 years or so. It is also a fairly involved process: No more than three of the suspender ropes — each one is made up of 283 wires, according to the Port Authority — that stretch from the bridge’s main cables to the roadway can be replaced at the same time, as removing more than that could destabilize the span.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/nyregion/george-washington-bridge-cables-to-be-replaced.html

[onehandle]

1. The 1% will not approve. nt

[alp227]

2. neither will Mitch McConnell

you can only imagine him thinking in his Roy Orbison voice: "OH MY GOSH! People are WORKING? NO! Obama is going to be re-elected!"

[FailureToCommunicate]

3. Nor will their chauffeurs, stuck in bridge work delays.

[wordpix]

4. while we're at it, how about repairing those underpasses on the way to the GW Bridge

Coming from the south, those underpasses look like they'll give any moment. :scared:

[smirkymonkey]

10. Everything in NYC looks like it will give at any moment...

Have you ever taken the subway and looked up inside the stations? Scary.

[Johnny Noshoes]

5. From Wikipedia....

The original design for the towers of the bridge called for them to be encased in concrete and granite. However, because of cost considerations during the Great Depression and favorable aesthetic critiques of the bare steel towers, this was never done. The exposed steel towers, with their distinctive criss-crossed bracing, have become one of the bridge's most identifiable characteristics. Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret) said of the unadorned steel structure:

"The George Washington Bridge over the Hudson is the most beautiful bridge in the world. Made of cables and steel beams, it gleams in the sky like a reversed arch. It is blessed. It is the only seat of grace in the disordered city. It is painted an aluminum color and, between water and sky, you see nothing but the bent cord supported by two steel towers. When your car moves up the ramp the two towers rise so high that it brings you happiness; their structure is so pure, so resolute, so regular that here, finally, steel architecture seems to laugh. The car reaches an unexpectedly wide apron; the second tower is very far away; innumerable vertical cables, gleaming against the sky, are suspended from the magisterial curve which swings down and then up. The rose-colored towers of New York appear, a vision whose harshness is mitigated by distance." (When the Cathedrals were White<18>)

[LibertyLover]

6. While they're at it, could they please do something about the

signage. Thank the gods that I lived in northern New Jersey for over 30 years and know the GW Bridge and its approaches pretty well so that when I go back for visits, I don't have a problem. But, if you're not from the area, you are going to get lost.

[Evasporque]

7. Hmmm Depression era infrastructure project...I wonder how many jobs that created...?

I think a good analog for modern times would be high speed rail....

oh wait the GOP doesn't like government spending...unless it is for tax cuts for the rich and fat defense pork dollars for home districts.

GOP would never build a bridge like the great bridges of the 20th century...they would rather give out corporate handouts...and gut revenue with giant Bush style tax cuts for the rich.

[Tesha]

8. The Golden Gate was also a depression-era project.

But we have no nerve as a society anymore.

Now, we only can think of the next way to drown
government in the bathtub (or the Bay or the Hudson
River).

We are pathetic.

Tesha

[BumRushDaShow]

9. "George Washington Will"

Why did that headline make the name "George Will" come to my mind, although I know he ain't 80 yet (he just turned 70 this year), but always acted like he was! :rofl: