Wednesday, December 19, 2012

New Port Mann Bridge closed for falling icicles



Just when I was going to renege on my Surrey the Centre of Stupidity post. After all, they opened up more lanes on the new bridge going into Vancouver finally so things were finally improving. Until today. Two inches of snow and the thermometer hovering around zero has produced icicles on the cables of the new bridge. As it warms the icicles melt, fall and smash windshields of cars driving below. I’m not talking about one or two cars, I’m talking several. Great another brain surgeon escapes with his pocket full of money while the tax payer is left to pick up the pieces. It’s like the new wonderful sky train that doesn’t work when it snows. Brilliant.

Gee the old bridge didn’t do that. Twining it would have been cheaper, safe and we’d be able to use it all year round. The same thing doesn’t happen on the Alex Fraser bridge because those towers are on the sides of the bridge so the cars don’t drive under the cables like on the new and almost improved Port Mann bridge. I don’t want to be a pessimist all the time but I’m really not excited about the design of the new bridge. The whole thing held up by two concrete towers. It’s hard to tell if all those cables are holding the bridge up or if they’re holding those Babylonian towers up so they don’t tip over. I guess time will tell. When the earth quake hits we’ll see how it does. I personally prefer steel arches. They’re much more reliable.

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