Welcome to the Hardcore Husky Forums. Folks who are well-known in Cyberland and not that dumb.
Super expensive trains to nowhere
WestlinnDuck
Member Posts: 15,032 
in Tug Tavern
Let's pretend that sometime in the next 10 years they get this small train segment to work without any more cost overruns. I'm guessing there isn't any demand for the public to get on a train ride from Merced to Bakersfield. Once running there is no way to charge enough to cover for maintenance and the employee cost to run the train. So, more billions in tax dollars to subsidize the train. You will have to drive or Uber (now being basically banned in Cali) to the Merced train station. Then you will be going at advanced Amtrak speeds with how many stops to Bakersfield. Then you need to rent a car or Uber around. Hopefully your laptop, cell phone and wallet aren't stolen because of Cali's commitment to law and order. Or you could just drive your car which is what everyone will do. Listening to leftards whine about the need for smart public investment supervised by the best of intellectual elites and then also hear about the lack of money for everything else is nauseating.
http://ace.mu.nu/
The Fantasy Railroad Breaks Down Again
Well, here's the latest on Jerry Brown's Dream for Connecting California, which has now become Gavin Newsom's fiscal project (involving federal money). Excellent report in the LA Times by Ralph Vartabedian. If more newspaper stories were this informative. . . .
A series of errors by contractors and consultants on the California bullet train venture caused support cables to fail on a massive bridge, triggering an order to stop work that further delayed a project already years behind schedule, the Los Angeles Times has learned.
The bridge is longer than two football fields and is needed to shuttle vehicles over the future bullet train right of way and existing BNSF freight tracks in Madera County.
Authorities have yet to finalize a plan to repair the bridge. Late last year, crews installed temporary steel supports to prevent it from collapsing.
Last I read, it's actually not going to be a "bullet train" any more. Just a somewhat faster version of Amtrak, basically.
The bridge is part of Gov. Gavin Newsom's plan for a 171-mile, $20.4-billion bullet train operation from Merced to Bakersfield.
The bridge work began in 2016 and was supposed to be completed in 12 months. Relocation of underground utilities became a problem, as there were schedule glitches, according to rail authority and Madera County officials. Months turned into years, during which thousands of residents were forced to take long detours around the site.
171-miles! 20.4-billion dollars!
Imagine the uproar if this bridge had been in a highly populated area of California. The station in San Francisco was supposed to be finished in 2017. They finished it (for bus service) late in 2019 and had to close it for repairs, years before they didn't finish this rural bridge on flat land, for a dreamy rail system which was supposed to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles but won't anymore. Back to the LA Times piece:
Then last year came a series of blunders.
High-strength steel strands supporting the 636-foot-long structure began to snap on Oct. 22, one after another. Ultimately, 23 of the strands, which are composed of seven individual wires each, broke unexpectedly, according to rail authority documents and officials. The order to stop work was issued Nov. 4.
A comprehensive safety examination is in order. Ya think?
The problems on the Road 27 bridge reveal project management hitches that have dogged the bullet train for years. The California High-Speed Rail Authority has five separate layers of consultants and contractors on the bridge. Any one of them could have identified a long series of errors, but it appears no one did so.
Apart from those problems, the state issued a variety of nonconformance reports on the company's work, including an instance where a crane boom hit part of the bridge construction, contaminated concrete was found in a bridge support pier, incorrect alignment occurred on a bridge pier, and steel dowel rods were missing in concrete, among other items. . .
Gov. Gavin Newsom told The Times in 2019 that he was "going to get rid of a lot of consultants," but they remain integral to the project, according to engineering specialists and officials involved with bullet train planning. . .
Some outside engineers compare the situation to the 2018 Miami International University disaster, in which multiple players failed to recognize defects in a pedestrian bridge that collapsed onto a roadway. . .
There is a lot of technical detail in this piece, considering its short length. Take a look. This piece was found on Instapundit, where it is noted that the State of California PROBABLY USED CONTRACTORS WHO THINK MATH IS AN EXPRESSION OF PATRIARCHAL SUPREMACY.
Does this mean that Antifa would not have done it better?
http://ace.mu.nu/
The Fantasy Railroad Breaks Down Again
Well, here's the latest on Jerry Brown's Dream for Connecting California, which has now become Gavin Newsom's fiscal project (involving federal money). Excellent report in the LA Times by Ralph Vartabedian. If more newspaper stories were this informative. . . .
A series of errors by contractors and consultants on the California bullet train venture caused support cables to fail on a massive bridge, triggering an order to stop work that further delayed a project already years behind schedule, the Los Angeles Times has learned.
The bridge is longer than two football fields and is needed to shuttle vehicles over the future bullet train right of way and existing BNSF freight tracks in Madera County.
Authorities have yet to finalize a plan to repair the bridge. Late last year, crews installed temporary steel supports to prevent it from collapsing.
Last I read, it's actually not going to be a "bullet train" any more. Just a somewhat faster version of Amtrak, basically.
The bridge is part of Gov. Gavin Newsom's plan for a 171-mile, $20.4-billion bullet train operation from Merced to Bakersfield.
The bridge work began in 2016 and was supposed to be completed in 12 months. Relocation of underground utilities became a problem, as there were schedule glitches, according to rail authority and Madera County officials. Months turned into years, during which thousands of residents were forced to take long detours around the site.
171-miles! 20.4-billion dollars!
Imagine the uproar if this bridge had been in a highly populated area of California. The station in San Francisco was supposed to be finished in 2017. They finished it (for bus service) late in 2019 and had to close it for repairs, years before they didn't finish this rural bridge on flat land, for a dreamy rail system which was supposed to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles but won't anymore. Back to the LA Times piece:
Then last year came a series of blunders.
High-strength steel strands supporting the 636-foot-long structure began to snap on Oct. 22, one after another. Ultimately, 23 of the strands, which are composed of seven individual wires each, broke unexpectedly, according to rail authority documents and officials. The order to stop work was issued Nov. 4.
A comprehensive safety examination is in order. Ya think?
The problems on the Road 27 bridge reveal project management hitches that have dogged the bullet train for years. The California High-Speed Rail Authority has five separate layers of consultants and contractors on the bridge. Any one of them could have identified a long series of errors, but it appears no one did so.
Apart from those problems, the state issued a variety of nonconformance reports on the company's work, including an instance where a crane boom hit part of the bridge construction, contaminated concrete was found in a bridge support pier, incorrect alignment occurred on a bridge pier, and steel dowel rods were missing in concrete, among other items. . .
Gov. Gavin Newsom told The Times in 2019 that he was "going to get rid of a lot of consultants," but they remain integral to the project, according to engineering specialists and officials involved with bullet train planning. . .
Some outside engineers compare the situation to the 2018 Miami International University disaster, in which multiple players failed to recognize defects in a pedestrian bridge that collapsed onto a roadway. . .
There is a lot of technical detail in this piece, considering its short length. Take a look. This piece was found on Instapundit, where it is noted that the State of California PROBABLY USED CONTRACTORS WHO THINK MATH IS AN EXPRESSION OF PATRIARCHAL SUPREMACY.
Does this mean that Antifa would not have done it better?
Comments
The California High Speed rail project was never going to get built and the entire project was sold on lies. They are continuing to pour tax money into the construction while everyone knows the project will never be completed and what is being built is shoddy crap. Even if they complete it, it was never going to be high speed rail. It's a project that exists now purely for graft and kickbacks.