Most of the East/West traffic in Brownsville is horribly screwed up. I don't mean to state the obvious, but some of the why bears closer scrutiny.
I am not a half bad shirt-sleeve engineer, and from looking at it over and over, I can state now with absolute certainty that the destruction at the junction of FM802 and US 77 was done FOR NO REASON!
This project is a CCRMA project. Did they do it to fatten some buddy's wallet, or is this just some justification for their West Loop? Are there pressures to force through a westward expansion of Morrison Road that may prove easier if the other cross-town arteries are blocked?
If this is an example of CCRMA doing their job, I want the group disbanded for incompetence, if not bribery and graft, for you see IT WAS UNNECESSARY. This is an engineering certainty.
Some of FM 802 was lowered due to intentionally poor engineering the last go round in order to satisfy a harebrained scheme to keep Hudson's artificial resacas full.
The first time we had a gully washer of a rain, the intersection of FM 802 and Central Ave was under 2 feet of water and dozens of cars stalled out at night in the middle of the road. The road had never flooded before they lowered it.
In the latest round of unnecessary road destruction, they are lowering it again in front of the mall and near the intersection of Old Alice Road and FM802. Why do they want traffic stalled in high water at those fairly major intersections?
I am not so much of a conspiracy theorist to believe that that is their goal, but it most certainly will be the effect. So if the downside of the effect is so bad, what is the upside of the goal that would outweigh sound engineering practices? It has to be money involved, because no licensed Professional Engineer would sign off on such moronic stupidity.
Now, who gains from the roads becoming flood ways? The city for one. TxDOT builds the roads, but other than a drainage ditch, the city is responsible for storm drainage. With the roads as low as they have become, the storm waters will have to run uphill to keep the roads from flooding. This means that the city can get away with installing inadequate drainage for the roads, because it will be handling less run off BECAUSE THE ROAD ITSELF WILL BE UNDER WATER.
In Brownsville, we have been spared a major hurricane for so long, I fear we have rolled straight 7's too many times to expect another one. By the time a call for evacuation comes, the city will have already had some heavy rains preceding the hurricane. Our evacuation routes will be under water. Who do we blame then? During and after the hurricane, emergency vehicles will not be able to move because these major roads will be under water. What do we do then?
The truth of the mater is that there is nothing we could do then, there are some things we can do now, however. Get to the bottom of the UNNECESSARY reconstruction of the road at 802 and 77, and fire/prosecute/impeach whatever, every single person involved with that decision. Find out who profited and prosecute them, too. Since the whole CCRMA signed off on this wallet fattening proposal, disband the whole thing. It would have the added benefit of the end of toll road talk around here.
"Of course I know. It is my business to know." -The Merovingian
Saturday, June 28, 2008
After Careful Examination....
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5 comments:
I forgot to add, finish the one half they tore up, then stop. Not a penny to unnecessarily tear up the other side of the road.
M.
this is depressing.
patricia a.
I believe that the city thinks that when voters say that the roads are in bad shape and want them repaired that the voters are talking about roads like 802. Thus the city believes that projects like this and others are supported by the majority.
How do we communicate to those making decisions that tearing up perfectly good roads is not the point?
How do we communicate to those making decisions that tearing up perfectly good roads is not the point?
In the old days, a crowd would gather in the village square by torchlight, bringing with them common farming hand tools of the day, such as pitchforks,shovels, and axes. Well known local upstanding citizens would rile up the crowd gathered there while religious figures would either join in, or make impassioned pleas for sanity and forbearance, inciting the crowd further, regardless of the side of the argument chosen.
The angry mob (as it was called in those days) would then proceed in a disorderly fashion to the residence, office, jail, or castle where the object of their collective wrath was located. Upon discovery of the target of their scorn and disdain, the crowd would take out its vengeance in an evening of orgiastic, cathartic violence.
These days we have socially evolved to the point where such things are looked down upon as primitive. In our modern society, we demand investigations of wrongdoing from those that are part of the system that have a vested interest in protecting the status quo, in many cases actually expecting the guilty to investigate themselves. The system responses quickly to shield the guilty while grinding slowly in its efforts to locate a scapegoat whose ritual sacrifice to the angry mob takes the form of a transfer, resignation, or in extreme cases, defective prosecution and minor fines.
"Of course I know. It is my business to know" -The Merovingian
I appreciate your observations. I'd had similar thoughts because the last rebuild had been so recent (eight years?)and there were no obvious signs of wear.
The question is, who digs out the facts to lay before the public? Experience says it is work pinning weasels down.
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