On Nov. 3, One World Trade Center opened, following 13 years of planning and construction. The cost: $3.9 billion. It is 104 stories high reaching up to the sky 1,368 feet (1,776 feet with antennas) replacing the World Trade Center that was demolished on 9/11. Quite an accomplishment in the middle of New York City.
On the other side of the country are the shameless members of the Columbia River Crossing, the governors of Washington and Oregon, the mayors of Vancouver and Portland, as they spent nearly $200 million of our tax dollars “studying” a replacement bridge across the Columbia River. Somewhere between 13 and 15 years of “studying” only to have the project scrapped. And these people are our leaders. Scary, isn’t it?
The amazing statistic is that the project was going to cost $3.4 billion, later dropped to $2.9 billion, for a bridge and road improvements, the bridge not being much longer than the World Trade Center is tall. Hard to compare construction costs of a modern 104-story building vs. a steel and concrete bridge, but I’ll let your common sense do the math.
What will our leaders’ response be when a catastrophe occurs on the Interstate 5 Bridge, which has been predicted by many engineering studies, relative to the continued use and safety of the I-5 Bridge?
