Yikes! (Hendersonville, Henderson: condo, contractors, closing)

[alleycat]

You might not expect those folks from Hendersonville to be online at the moment. There was a massive traffic accident on Vietnam Veterans Blvd. this afternoon; a dump truck ran into a tanker and there was an exposion on the bridge. Power is out in a lot of places.

[artemis]

Yup, they have a fire out there as well. VV Blvd will be shut down til about 8pm.

[alleycat]

Here's the correct order for repairing the bridge:

1. First, shut down the road over the bridge, and under the bridge, and what-the-heck, any other road anywhere around that area.
2. Every uniformed cop and fireman within a twenty mile radius will come and look up at the bridge.
3. The state boys will come and look up at the bridge and issue such expect opinions as, "Yeah, could be some damage." and "Man, that must have been some explosion."
4. The experts from the state will be called in from their "part-time" jobs or private businesses to look at the bridge; these will include the supervisor, the managing supervisor, the supervisory supervisor, the head of engineering, the sub-departmental head for looking at bridges, and couple of brother-in-laws for each of the following sub-departments of the state DOT:
Bridges
Abutments
Guardrails
Signage
Sidewalks
Maintenance
Striping
Paving
Poles, and
Bass fishing
5. The expert will spend several hours looking at the bridge. They will issue such expect opinions as, "Yeah, could be some damage." and "Man, that must have been some explosion."
6. An emergency work order will be let.
7. A contact will be let for engineering services for $500,000.
8. The consulting engineers will come out and look at the bridge, They will issue such expect opinions as, "Yeah, could be some damage." and "Man, that must have been some explosion."
9. Repair plans will be drawn up and submitted.
10. The DOT will take, oh, say six months, to review the plans.
11. Someone at the DOT will initially reject the plans because they call for the bridge to be painted green and he wants it to be gray.
12. One of listed DOT contractors will take the head of the bridge department fishing at Center Hill Lake and then to a nice meal. Drinks will flow.
13. A contract will be given to the contractor for $8 million, plus incentives for catching the biggest bass.
14. The contractor will begin work after closing more roads.
15. Progess will be made, this will mainly consist of putting concrete barriers all around the place Six men will work on repairing the bridge; twenty-two other men will watch them to be sure they're doing it correctly.
16. The contractor will take all the men off of this job to work on the other job he's doing on Briley Parkway.
17. People will start to complain.
18. TV crews will come out.
19. The spokesman for the DOT will explain that the work is taking longer than expected because they want to be sure the public is safe.
20. The contractor and the head of the DOT will go deer hunting. Drinks will flow.
21. Work will resume on the bridge.
22. Sometime next spring, probably late spring, the bridge will be reopened.
23. Someone will immediately plow a cement truck into the bridge supports.

And that is how you repair a bridge!

[Dolfan]

This sounds very similar to the way bridges are repaired in New Jersey, except it takes a little longer.

Hope noone was seriously hurt. I just returned from Nashville recently and was driving in that exact area.

[alleycat]

Originally Posted by Dolfan

This sounds very similar to the way bridges are repaired in New Jersey, except it takes a little longer.

Hope noone was seriously hurt. I just returned from Nashville recently and was driving in that exact area.

One driver was killed.

They don't have to bribe quite as many people here, or pay off the mob.

[Dolfan]

Originally Posted by alleycat

One driver was killed.

They don't have to bribe quite as many people here, or pay off the mob.

I'm very sorry to hear about the fatality. My condolences to the family.

Good point about the bribes.