Although it is too cold at the moment for me to consider riding my bike to work today, I got another reminder of why I'm always glad my commute goes the opposite direction of the suburb-to-downtown rush in the mornings.
A tug pushing fifteen barges loaded with coal hit the I-64 bridge linking Indiana and Kentucky this morning. Appropriately, the Coast Guard had the police departments of both states close the bridge to all motor traffic until an inspection can be made to verify that the bridge will remain intact. We don't need to see another bridge collapse under heavy traffic. We'd rather not see the bridge closed at all, but it's much easier to pay the bill for repairs if there are no lives lost, to say nothing of the impact such a disaster would have on our neighbors.
Seeing the traffic backed up on I-65 beyond sight lines made it clear to me just how much we depend on our bridges. It reinforces the justification for building another bridge on the east end of our metro area. Even if we had that bridge in service now, we would have a huge traffic problem, but it would be slightly less problematic than it is now.
With a forecast low tonight in the mid-20s, I may be able to ride to work tomorrow. I would like to ride, but am wary of the inconsistent ice clearing that has been done so far, among other things (salt, cinders, tree debris...) that I will have to dodge. We'll see.
Boulder, Louisville, and press coverage of crashes
16 years ago
1 comment:
I drove today also, and was stuck in the mess trying to get across the 2nd street bridge.
With only three bridges, closing any one of them makes traffic on the other two insane. My normal 30-40 minute commute was almost 2 hours.
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