The Who, The Why, Oh! That's Easy

A couple of weeks ago, down at the bridge, a retired engineer was looking at the bridge work. After a few minutes, he ask, "what's the name of this bridge? "  That question set me back a bit. I'm thinking to myself, he said that he was a retired engineer and he didn't know the name of the bridge? Then, I said," this is the Margaret McDermott bridge, but I called it the Maggie 2." He then ask, " why do you call it that?" My reply this time came with an added explanation.

When the first bridge was built, I had photographed the construction from the first piling being drilled until the tables were set with china, stemware, silverware, flowers and menus for the contestants that had entered a contest of some sort, but for me, it was the end of the construction photographs. Then, when the discovery was made that the second bridge was, indeed, going to be built and it would be named for Margaret McDermott, for my ease in indexing my images, I knew that I would need some way to shorten up the names for identification. Maggie is a moniker or nickname for Margaret, Since both bridges are named Margaret the first one build is number 1 and the second one is number 2. But, looking at the architecture, one has one arch and two has two arches so,  Maggie 1 and Maggie 2 fits well because it names the first bridge build as number one and it has one arch. The second bridge built has two arches. Since both names are Margaret--Maggie is common to both bridges. Therefore, Maggie one and Maggie two is an easy way to accurately identify the two bridges.

After confirmation that the second bridge design was final it became fairly clear quickly that the answer would be simple. Keeping in mind that this was my way to shorten up the indexing. It is based on fact. Probably, this turned out to be  the easiest method that I have ever used  to index images. I was a bit surprised to find that it actually works well to separate the two bridges quickly, easily and have that id based in actual fact. So, I started called the two bridges Maggie 1 and Maggie 2. You can easily follow along with the captions on the image that follows.

Here are the two bridges. The one on the left is Maggie1, the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge.

The one on the right is Maggie 2, the Margaret McDermott bridge.

So, looking at this bridge, quickly, it  is the Maggie 2. It was built second in time and it has two arches. It's also named Margaret or Maggie.  Easy as beans!

Ice Returns to North Texas Roads!!

The present conditions in the Dallas/Ft.Worth Metroplex is danger on the roads. Stay off the roads if you don't have to be out. There is between 0.5 of an inch to 1-inch of sleet and ice on the roads. The temperature is in the twenties so any melting from the pre-treating of brine and later the spreading of sand on the roadways has made for slick black ice driving

If you have lived up north, especially in the snow-belts around the Great Lakes, from northern Minnesota to upstate New York on down to the eastern seaboard, you would want to laugh at a little bit of ice on the roads here in Texas. As every one knows, the roads are not "salted" here in Texas. The next big question that every one ask next is: why?  That's a simple question but has a much more difficult answer. Some of it is technical. Some is financial. Some is political. Some is just plain stubborn thinking. When you get right down to it, however, the answer lies in basic physics and chemistry.

Concrete is one of the marvels of man-made useful products. It's contents are found in nature and in abundant supply. It's easy to make in large quantities. It's also very porous. That means liquids will be soaked up by the material. While that isn't a large-scale problem on roadways up north, it is here for two additional reasons. Most roadways up north are asphalt, but mostly concrete in Texas. Again, the why question pops up. Well, asphalt does not work so well in Texas sun when temperatures hit 100 plus during the summers. Although, there is new asphalt technologies helping that problem somewhat.

Concrete when exposed to the corrosive nature of salt wears concrete down much faster, especially when it is in bridgework, flyways and multi-level ramps. Gravity even helps the aging process along even more rapidly than on roadways.Have you ever seen an asphalt support column holding up an overpass? No, and  I don't think that you will, either. All that concrete needs reinforcing bar to strengthen the concrete structure. You don't have rebar in the asphalt roadways but you do in the bridgework over topographical elements roadways over valleys, rivers, railroad tracks and other criss-crossing roadways etc.,etc.Then, there is the hundreds of miles of open roadways from one side of the state to the other that requires concrete roadways and that requires reinforcing bar as well.

While rebar is not always "blue" when used in roadway and bridge construction, "rust" is not a cause for rejection on such projects. In fact, rust has an adhering effect to concrete. Yet, the government and state departments of transportation require a rubberized coating called "epoxy" on rebar used on federal and state highways financed with  federal construction dollars.  Not only does it run up the cost of the rebar significantly, it also doesn't stop the concrete from creating weak spots around the rebar and with heavy traffic over bridges, gravity takes it toll  on big chunks of concrete falling onto the roadways below. That is a life-threatening situation that is a totally undesirable situation.

The next thing to consider is that here in Texas, the big bottle necks occur on the three,four and even five tier high roadway interchanges and the more numerous one and two tier roadways. Dallas has some 5,000 bridges or more while Ft. Worth has some 3,000 plus bridges. That is far more bridges per square mile than most major cities in the US. When TxDot builds or re-engineers a major interchange, the cost of those products can be one-billion plus dollars. In the last 15 years in north Dallas, I have seen more than a hand-full of these construction projects. The projects are not really upgrades, rather they are major re-engineered or totally new and this is just catching up with the growth while planning into the future 50-years or so.The growth rate for the Metroplex has been reported as adding a minimum of 1,000 new residents per day. In the last 15-years, I have seen major stretches of farm land for miles become  solid-rooftops with a distance between homes being about the width of the average subcompact car.

Reinforcing Bar without Epoxy Coating

TexDot puts the bridge population in the Metroplex at 7500 and counting!

There are also reports that developers are now within 25-miles of the Red River!  Before that happens however, I see east, west and southern growth taking over more that what I see currently.

Rock salt on that many bridges and 14-16 lane roadways would break-the-bank in maintenance alone. So, take the little wintery mix and stay home and enjoy the fireplace or just read a good book! It all makes sense to me now and I'm not ready to see rock salt on my car any time soon!