OT: New bridge

[VAUConnFan]

Sure we can put a man on the moon and construct a probe(voyager 1 and 2) what we communicate with that is in interstellar space via 1970's tech and we cannot fix I95. Yeah.. Makes sense.

But think of how much it cost to put that man on the moon and to construct the two voyagers.

 

[JustinesGuy]

But think of how much it cost to put that man on the moon and to construct the two voyagers.

Exactly. But think about all the happy travelers like me if we fixed stamford to Bridgeport. Worth any price tag ha. We surely pay enough taxes

 

[Rixxx]

I like any comment re: Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Most impressive, executed project of all time. JMHO....

 

[Fairfield Fan]

These massive bridges are amazing to look at.





Does CT have the money to fix the problem? It would cost BILLIONS I presume.

But New York state collects tolls. Pays for itself.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

N

No. Our politicians have bankrupted the state. If you adjust for the true cost of the pensions, the deficit is almost unfixable.

to true. The state of Connecticut's combined state and municipal bonded debt as a percentage of gross state product ranks Connecticut #27 among the fifty states. The quirk of Connecticut is that it is one of just two states without functioning county-level government. That has meant that a number of functions that would normally be performed by counties, or county-level school districts, are pushed up to the state level. So while the state looks more debt-heavy than other states, the municipalities are far less debt-heavy, and operate far smaller governments relative to population. That's the flip side of the fiscal coin.

Nearly a quarter of Connecticut's total debt was for school construction, which would almost never show up at the state government level. Another 10% went for a pension obligation bond to shore up the teachers pension fund, again bonded debt and pension debt that only shows up in one other state- New Jersey. That's why, faced with a deficit, Governor Malloy suggested that the municipalities begin to pick up a portion of the required contributions to the teachers pension fund, a contribution, I might add, that takes up 7% of the state's budget. And that is something that only shows up in one other state's budget- again, New Jersey.

So Connecticut is far, FAR, from bankrupt. And the notion that it is in any way "bankrupt" is absolutely false.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

1. For those fairfield county residents who think the all their tax money is being spent on highways in Hartford you should be aware that 80-90% of highway construction costs are paid with federal money. Furthermore, more state tax money is used to subsidize Metro-North in Fairfield County than is spent on all mass transit systems in the entire rest of the state.

I used to live in FC in the mid 70's and the traffic was horrible then, with the added problem of toll booths in Greenwich, Westport, Stratford, West Haven, etc. I used to travel from Norwich to Westport on Sunday evenings in the summer. There would be mile long lines at every toll. I would buy a pizza, have a couple of cold beers and a couple of J's ready, put a tape in my 8 track and just resign myself to a 3+ hr ride. A simpler time.

It's true that the state contributes nearly a quarter of a billion dollars a year toward the operation and capital requirements of Metro North. It is a subsidy that wealthy Fairfield County residents conveniently choose to ignore when complaining about all the money they/we send to Hartford. But the rest of the state benefits by reducing dramatically ware and tear on the road system. But Metro North is given a meager subsidy by the federal government, while passenger rail systems in the rest of the world are granted far greater subsidies.

I went across the Tappan Zee last night, though going east, so on the old span.

PS Do you know why the Tappan Zee was built where it is, across the widest expanse of the Hudson River? Because that is the closest point to New York that would keep it out of the jurisdiction of the Port Authority, which has control of all crossing points and airports within a 25-mile radius of the Statue of Liberty. The Tappan Zee is slightly farther away. Governor Dewey wanted the revenues from the Tappan Zee to pay for other state roads. That's also why the new span was built on the northern side of the old span, and not the southern side. To keep it out of the clutches of the Port Authority.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Well this was certainly a can of Connecticut worms... I've lived in mid Fairfield County since the mid 70s.. Long enough to remember tolls when 95 was called the Connecticut Turnpike... This road has always been a mess.

1. After the tolls were eliminated all the trucks that used to use 84 from and to Boston -NYC switched to 95... Free road and shorter...

2. Then Stamford bulldozed their downtown low rise apartments and built high rise commercial buildings to attract NYC companies, followed by Greenwich and Norwalk... Thus was the Fairfield County traffic jam invented...

3. No help from Hartford; they were busy collecting taxes from Fairfield County (aka The Connecticut Gold Coast) and reinvesting in the roads around Hartford, along with a football stadium for the New England Patroits... Gotta have roads there so the legislators can get to work... And gotta have a stadium so the legislators can all use the sky boxes to watch the pro football games...

4. Can't expand the width of the road because of the cost of the land purchases... Now they're talking about a road use tax...

Me? I'm moving to North Carolina... I may not like their politics but their traffic jams are five or six cars at a traffic circle... And the taxes and weather is for sure a lot better...

Connecticut is the only state on the East Coast that doesn't collect tolls on its interstate roads. And that is a critical reason why our roads and bridges are in such a poor state of repair: we don't have toll revenues to pay for their repair and upkeep. While Nutmeggers would be taxed, we would also bring in an estimated third of a billion dollars a year from out-of-state drivers and trucks using our roads now for free- and contributing to their degradation by overuse.

Might be interested to know that there are more residents of New York using Metro North to come into Greenwich and other Fairfield County financial centers, than there are Fairfield County residents using mass transit to go into New York City. So Metro North benefits Connecticut by bringing in labor from outside.

 

[CTyankee]

Connecticut is the only state on the East Coast that doesn't collect tolls on its interstate roads.

I'm sure you meant in the NE coast, not East Coast... NC and SC don't have tolls on a number of their interstate highways... RI comes to mind, but they may have tolls on bridges...

 

[Fairfield Fan]

I'm sure you meant in the NE coast, not East Coast... NC and SC don't have tolls on a number of their interstate highways... RI comes to mind, but they may have tolls on bridges...

I believe I meant East Coast. Though they might not have them on all, they have them on some.

 

[Charliebball]

Connecticut is the only state on the East Coast that doesn't collect tolls on its interstate roads.

So Metro North benefits Connecticut by bringing in labor from outside.

If I remember correctly toll roads lost their appeal after that terrible accident at a toll booth on the Ct Turnpike many years ago

 

[RockyMTblue2]

If I remember correctly toll roads lost their appeal after that terrible accident at a toll booth on the Ct Turnpike many years ago

That was the end of the toll booths on 95 I believe. It's a federal road so I don't think Malloy can put up some Jersey Barriers and start collecting real soon.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Do you know why the Tappan Zee was built where it is, across the widest expanse of the Hudson River?

I thought it was to please General Motors and ease flight from any melt down of the nuclear plant. I guess, though, the bridge predated both.

 

[Wbbfan1]

Don't know why USA has not endorsed a Monorail system that could be built along side or above most of the major highways. Won't be too many more years (maybe 10-15) before Hover Cars will be cost effective if there's enough interest.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Don't know why USA has not endorsed a Monorail system that could be built along side or above most of the major highways. Won't be too many more years (maybe 10-15) before Hover Cars will be cost effective if there's enough interest.

Go back and look at the Popular Sciences and Mechanix Illustrated magazines of the late 50s and early 60s. I get a great kick out of Dreamer Billionaires proposing a tube system between Washington,DC and Manhattan. Our infrastructure is crumbling around us. There is no money for new. Heck, the electric car has floundered because of the lack of plug and go stations - cheap stuff. Sun and wind power is good here aand there, but getting a rationale grid to distribute it ... too expensive (of course I know that is all about how you calculate the "true" cost of doing it vs. not doing it). Any moment now this thread will be locked???

 

[triaddukefan]

I believe I meant East Coast. Though they might not have them on all, they have them on some.

NC has never had an interstate tolled.. EVER. Last time I checked... NC was on the East Coast. There is the Triangle Expressway....... a toll road in western Wake county.. .... but its not an interstate. In SC.... Interstate 185 Southern Section is tolled.... but its only about a 10 mile highway on the south side of Greenville.... not a major highway at all. GA never had an interstate toll road..... though they do have a section of Interstate 85 that used to be HOV lanes ... they turned them into express lanes. Though you have the option just to take the free section of the highway. I believe they are doing the same thing to Interstate 75 through the Northern Suburbs.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

If I remember correctly toll roads lost their appeal after that terrible accident at a toll booth on the Ct Turnpike many years ago

Yes, but modern toll booths don't require cars and trucks to actually stop to pay tolls. So the thing that caused the accident wouldn't happen today.

 

[TheObserver]

I thought it was to please General Motors and ease flight from any melt down of the nuclear plant. I guess, though, the bridge predated both.

Not sure what you are referring to concerning GM, but The Tappan Zee Bridge was designed and built before Indian Point 1 was built.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Not sure what you are referring to concerning GM, but The Tappan Zee Bridge was designed and built before Indian Point 1 was built.

Thanks. There was a huge GM plant quite close to the bridge on the eastern side. Closed some time ago. I don't know what came first, the plant or the bridge. I am sure the rail line was at least as vital to the plant as the bridge . While the bridge was deemed a vital bug out transportation means, several years ago the Westchester/Putnam area evacuation plan was found to be very deficient (as I suspect most are).

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Yes, but modern toll booths don't require cars and trucks to actually stop to pay tolls. So the thing that caused the accident wouldn't happen today.

A car can never screw up as it passes through the scan, causing a pile up, with a gasoline truck in the mix??

 

[Fishy]

I thought it was to please General Motors and ease flight from any melt down of the nuclear plant. I guess, though, the bridge predated both.

It was built where it was so that it was as close to the city as possible and yet outside of the radius controlled by the NY/NJ Port Authority. It's about a mile outside of that radius, so New York was in charge of its construction and operation and not the PA.

Basically, politics.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

It was built where it was so that it was as close to the city as possible and yet outside of the radius controlled by the NY/NJ Port Authority. It's about a mile outside of that radius, so New York was in charge of its construction and operation and not the PA.

Basically, politics.

Makes sense. In fairness to the politics outside the circle, if it had been under PA authority the toll would have been $25 by 2002 and the bridge would have collapsed in 2003.

 

[Fishy]

PS Do you know why the Tappan Zee was built where it is, across the widest expanse of the Hudson River? Because that is the closest point to New York that would keep it out of the jurisdiction of the Port Authority, which has control of all crossing points and airports within a 25-mile radius of the Statue of Liberty. The Tappan Zee is slightly farther away. Governor Dewey wanted the revenues from the Tappan Zee to pay for other state roads. That's also why the new span was built on the northern side of the old span, and not the southern side. To keep it out of the clutches of the Port Authority.

It's about 500 yards north of where the PA's radius ends.

It's not where the river is the widest, but it is where the river is probably the least hospitable to bridge-building. The bottom is pure muck there.

Widest part of the river is about 10 miles north of the Tappan Zee in Haverstraw Bay. That's where Henry Hudson landed and figured he had found the Northwest Passage. (A week later, he was in Albany and realized that it wasn't the Northwest Passage and that he wanted to go home.)