So, I've been sick. Blehhh. Slowly but surely, though, I'm getting better! This is a crazy week, though, 'cause we've got finals on Friday, Monday, and a paper due that next Friday.
...and on top of that, WORK STARTED! I was anxious as all hell this morning, understandably, but I have Direction and a Project, so I'm overjoyed, frankly. I got in, and they had a little folder for me with a briefing on the Forth Road Crossing, summarizing the issues that I should be looking into, with all the fancy reports currently put out by the SPICe (Scottish Parliament Information Centre). With the MSPs out, for the most part, it was supremely quiet. I got lunch with Kieran (I think that's how it's spelled) who's been there for about 6 months. He grew up in Glasgow, and is a fellow enthusiastic-young-dude. Besides making coffee and a few exchanges besides lunch, I got to just dive into the policy stuff!
(speaking of which, the rest of this post will be a lot about bridges. Surprise!)
I might as well summarize the basics of the project, since everything I do will probably be about this! Sooo basically, there are two current bridges over the Firth of the Forth, the big ol' estuary where the Forth river meets the North Sea. The picture below is taken facing northeast, looking out towards the open sea to the east of Scotland.
(photo property of Transport Scotland, our dear national transportation agency)
Farthest east (at the top of the picture), we have the Forth Rail Bridge, completed in the 1890s. It's big and red, made of tons of little triangles, and famous the world over for its incredible construction given its age.
The next bridge down (that looks a bit like a grey Golden Gate) is the Forth Road Bridge. This little thing is responsible for all the trouble that has to be solved. Constructed in 1964, it was supposed to last for 100 years. Instead, the main cables (the ones holding up the vertical cables) have corroded significantly, and the total strength has already deteriorated 8-10%. It also has to be repainted every single year at this point. While they've installed dehumidifiers (pumping dry air between the wires that make up the main cables) to prevent further corrosion, current estimates are that shipping trucks and such will have to stop crossing in 2017.
SO! Given how long it takes to build something like a bridge, that doesn't leave much time to act. This is where the third and final bridge comes in. The bottom bridge in the picture (with the three vertical pylons) is the proposed cable stayed bridge that would be built if the bill I'm assessing passes. It should take about 5 years to build, and the funding should be freed up by 2011 if everything works out. This no margin for error, though. So far (for one day, lol) my research has been to find out, first, if there is anything to do to ensure that the current road bridge stays in commission, and second, to look through the bill and find out what concerns haven't been addressed. Today, therefore, consisted of me looking through a whole bunch of bridge coatings to fix the paint problem and trying to see if there are any projects old enough to have proven the dehumidifier systems (there's not, really).
The more interesting and... sorta sad bit was looking through constituent objections. There were maybe two or three issues that could be sorted out; for instance, increased traffic on a road with several blind, right-angle corners could be fixed by installing some fish-eye mirrors, I thought. Besides that, though, they were all issues with the compulsory land purchases that would have to be made for the various service roads, however temporary they may be, and the tales of how constituents' children would have to deal with all the dust kicked up and their quiet lanes would no longer be suitable for playing. I spent plenty of time on Google Maps looking at each place they mentioned, scoping out if this thing could be moved at ALL, but these kinds of issues would be encountered wherever the bridge would be placed; there are adorable little hamlets all across the Lothian coast. *sigh* It'll be an adventure getting through all of them, and I hope there will be some that can actually be solved.
...I'm excited to go in tomorrow. :D
That's great, Chris! I wish the world had more people like you working on policy: really passionate about the issues and also caring about how they affect citizens. Proud!
ReplyDeleteWow, Chris. You're already deep into bridge research. Sounds like a complicated set of issues. And bridges breaking can mean life-and-death consequences. Glad you've got meat to chew on. Cheers!
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