http://jacksonville.com/community/arlington/2012-05-29/story/fdot-mathews-bridge-closed-due-damaged-platform-cables
Would anyone like to share war stories about their evening commute sans the Mathews Bridge? I noticed that Atlantic, Beach and University Boulevards were all parking lots... What a mess!
And from another thread, the answer!
Quote from: tufsu1 on May 29, 2012, 08:28:27 AM
Quote from: Ocklawaha on May 28, 2012, 10:52:17 PM
MAYOR BROWN, PLEASE KICK THE HIGHWAY OUT OF JTA!
some would argue that's the only part JTA does well
Simple people, just leave the car at home and ride the rail system to work. What rail system? Oh, I'm sorry, I got Jacksonville confused with the 3Rd World!
http://www.youtube.com/v/X6fgtuuqzUA?version=3&hl=en_US
The news story say's
"Medellin Number One In Transportation Sustainability In The World"
One hour and 15 minutes to get from the beginning of Atlantic (in front of Bishop Kenny) to cross the light at University and Atlantic.
Just painful.
so Ock...what happens in cities with rail when one of the lines go down.....oh yeah, basically the same thing!
Can you imagine if all the bridges closed and people needed to get out of downtown? I cross the Matthews pretty often and wondered about this contraption they placed above traffic on the bridge.
It was a good call to close it ,that is for sure!! Hope they get the problems solved soon. This brings to mind a concern, which is when it comes time to replace the bridge, on which side of it will they build the replacement. if it is to the North , Goodbye to the Ford Plant. :(
Don't think we need to worry about a new Mathews Bridge any time soon. No one has the half billion needed for the bridge and expressway.
So the contractor had no contingency plans for the work platform in the case of a storm? That's brilliant. What happens if we get another storm that's more powerful- we are about to enter hurricane season. Can we expect the entire platform to blow off?
The bridge is open!
Quote from: tufsu1 on May 29, 2012, 10:01:59 PM
so Ock...what happens in cities with rail when one of the lines go down.....oh yeah, basically the same thing!
Don't be a wisecrack, my fellow MetroJacksonvillian! Uncle Ock was just implying that we should have MORE than one options to get around the city beside the roads. Once a bridge gets closed like Matthew Bridge, the other option would be go around on another route... OR get on a light rail or a better bus service, OR airships, or airplane. Oh.. right you don't want to pay as much as you would like to.
-Josh
Quote from: tufsu1 on May 29, 2012, 10:01:59 PM
so Ock...what happens in cities with rail when one of the lines go down.....oh yeah, basically the same thing!
Wrong TUFSU1, IF a city has a good mix of transit such as Medellin has, IE: streetcar, aerial cable, heavy rail metro, bus, commuter rail etc. If one mode goes down, you have the built in flexibility to make the temporary shift to another. In Jacksonville's asphalt dependent ways, we have just about ZERO flexibility.
The "AUTHORITIES" over at JTA have screwed this city far too long.
OCKLAWAHA
So we lost the Mathews Bridge, Wonderwood and the Ferry during the storm. If we ever had a major hurricane we would be screwed! Infrastructure can only handle so much mother nature. The more modes the merrier, but at some point they all will fail.
Quote from: Timkin on May 29, 2012, 10:15:44 PM
Can you imagine if all the bridges closed and people needed to get out of downtown? I cross the Matthews pretty often and wondered about this contraption they placed above traffic on the bridge.
Timkin were you here back in 1989 I believe it was when we had a freak winter storm that did shut down all the bridges except for the Main St bridge. People in downtown were stuck for hours and hours. I lived in Arlington at the time and ended up going up North Main to Heckscher to the ferry and crossing over the river into Mayport and then to Arlington and still made it home faster than many. If the ferry had been shut down I would have been stuck downtown like everyone else.
Quote from: aclchampion on May 30, 2012, 10:04:21 AM
Quote from: Timkin on May 29, 2012, 10:15:44 PM
Can you imagine if all the bridges closed and people needed to get out of downtown? I cross the Matthews pretty often and wondered about this contraption they placed above traffic on the bridge.
Timkin were you here back in 1989 I believe it was when we had a freak winter storm that did shut down all the bridges except for the Main St bridge. People in downtown were stuck for hours and hours. I lived in Arlington at the time and ended up going up North Main to Heckscher to the ferry and crossing over the river into Mayport and then to Arlington and still made it home faster than many. If the ferry had been shut down I would have been stuck downtown like everyone else.
It was 1989, but it was actually the old Acosta bridge that was the only one that was open. I had to drive from Baymeadows to the northside that night and it took about 4 hours.
It was December 23, 1989.
If we have a hurricane you probably won't be able to reach the bridge approaches for all the debris. Traffic actually won't have anywhere to go. We'll be shut down for several days.
Quote from: Timkin on May 29, 2012, 10:15:44 PM
Can you imagine if all the bridges closed and people needed to get out of downtown?
How do you get stuck in Downtown and needed to get out? I don't think I-95 North needs a long bridge to escape town neither does taking I-10 East. You have so many options to get out of downtown it's not even funny. Being stuck in the other side of the river or even the Beaches would be more of a concern since the only practical way out of there by land is south.
Quote from: cityimrov on May 30, 2012, 01:49:02 PM
Quote from: Timkin on May 29, 2012, 10:15:44 PM
Can you imagine if all the bridges closed and people needed to get out of downtown?
How do you get stuck in Downtown and needed to get out? I don't think I-95 North needs a long bridge to escape town neither does taking I-10 East. You have so many options to get out of downtown it's not even funny. Being stuck in the other side of the river or even the Beaches would be more of a concern since the only practical way out of there by land is south.
Merely a scenario. My apologies. I forgot. No one works , lives, or uses downtown anymore ;)
Quote from: aclchampion on May 30, 2012, 10:04:21 AM
Quote from: Timkin on May 29, 2012, 10:15:44 PM
Can you imagine if all the bridges closed and people needed to get out of downtown? I cross the Matthews pretty often and wondered about this contraption they placed above traffic on the bridge.
Timkin were you here back in 1989 I believe it was when we had a freak winter storm that did shut down all the bridges except for the Main St bridge. People in downtown were stuck for hours and hours. I lived in Arlington at the time and ended up going up North Main to Heckscher to the ferry and crossing over the river into Mayport and then to Arlington and still made it home faster than many. If the ferry had been shut down I would have been stuck downtown like everyone else.
As a matter of fact, I do .. December 21st 1989 I believe was the date. Not knowing the bridges had already iced, myself and a couple friends were headed to a Christmas Party on the Northside. Going North on I-95 when we got to the Viaduct, the car was instantly out of control , along with many others who had no experience with driving on ice. My friend , Ron , in order to avoid hitting a car sitting sideways in the lane , ran the car into the concrete partition, and came literally inches away from the car in front of us. Needless to say ,we did not make it to the Christmas party and in fact, sat there on the Viaduct for several hours before traffic was routed to secondary roads. Was well into the early hours of the morning before we made it back home. Sitting on the Viaduct , we could see other bridges and traffic halted on them. I did not recall that the Old Acosta remained open.
That 4 day period was my first (and last) experience with attempting to drive on ice.
Quote from: fsujax on May 30, 2012, 09:52:52 AM
So we lost the Mathews Bridge, Wonderwood and the Ferry during the storm. If we ever had a major hurricane we would be screwed! Infrastructure can only handle so much mother nature. The more modes the merrier, but at some point they all will fail.
True enough, if we set off an atomic bomb all systems would fail. If we had a 8.5 earthquake all systems would fail. If we had a category 5 hurricane, everything would fail.
But in the normal, day to day challenges, a bridge shut down, a ferry, a tropical storm, having a mixed grid of multiple modes allows a city or transportation agency to shift from one to the other. In the case of an ice storm for example, the commuter rail, water taxi and streetcars would be running long after auto, bus and monorail traffic had shut down.
In the age of the private railroads operating their own passenger trains, back when Jacksonville Terminal was still a buzz of activity, the Russians placed nuke missiles in Cuba. Suddenly all hell broke loose as Florida schools and communities braced for a possible nuke attack. The Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line, Southern Railway and the Florida East Coast, in cooperation with our Jacksonville Terminal Company kept passenger trains preassembled and ready to roll to evacuate students from our area schools. We had drills in Ortega and John NC Stockton elementary schools where we lined up and marched out to the tracks where a train would meet us. Today, we have two Amtrak trains daily, no commuter rail, no regional rail, no light rail, no streetcars and a very limited monorail. If this situation happened tomorrow, Jacksonville would be in a much worse position then we were in back in 1962.
One thing is a certainty, as long as FDOT/JTA devote virtually 100% of our transportation resources to highways and highway based transit, we won't have a mobility option if such an emergency arises again.
Jacksonville desperately needs to diversify our transportation system, develop a matrix of interconnected modes and routes. We also need an 'authority' that deals with mass transit and NOTHING ELSE.
Quote from: Ocklawaha on May 30, 2012, 11:00:36 PM
Quote from: fsujax on May 30, 2012, 09:52:52 AM
So we lost the Mathews Bridge, Wonderwood and the Ferry during the storm. If we ever had a major hurricane we would be screwed! Infrastructure can only handle so much mother nature. The more modes the merrier, but at some point they all will fail.
True enough, if we set off an atomic bomb all systems would fail. If we had a 8.5 earthquake all systems would fail. If we had a category 5 hurricane, everything would fail.
But in the normal, day to day challenges, a bridge shut down, a ferry, a tropical storm, having a mixed grid of multiple modes allows a city or transportation agency to shift from one to the other. In the case of an ice storm for example, the commuter rail, water taxi and streetcars would be running long after auto, bus and monorail traffic had shut down.
In the age of the private railroads operating their own passenger trains, back when Jacksonville Terminal was still a buzz of activity, the Russians placed nuke missiles in Cuba. Suddenly all hell broke loose as Florida schools and communities braced for a possible nuke attack. The Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line, Southern Railway and the Florida East Coast, in cooperation with our Jacksonville Terminal Company kept passenger trains preassembled and ready to roll to evacuate students from our area schools. We had drills in Ortega and John NC Stockton elementary schools where we lined up and marched out to the tracks where a train would meet us. Today, we have two Amtrak trains daily, no commuter rail, no regional rail, no light rail, no streetcars and a very limited monorail. If this situation happened tomorrow, Jacksonville would be in a much worse position then we were in back in 1962.
One thing is a certainty, as long as FDOT/JTA devote virtually 100% of our transportation resources to highways and highway based transit, we won't have a mobility option if such an emergency arises again.
Jacksonville desperately needs to diversify our transportation system, develop a matrix of interconnected modes and routes. We also need an 'authority' that deals with mass transit and NOTHING ELSE.
+1,000,000!!!!!!!!
Quote from: carpnter on May 30, 2012, 11:45:30 AM
Quote from: aclchampion on May 30, 2012, 10:04:21 AM
Quote from: Timkin on May 29, 2012, 10:15:44 PM
Can you imagine if all the bridges closed and people needed to get out of downtown? I cross the Matthews pretty often and wondered about this contraption they placed above traffic on the bridge.
Timkin were you here back in 1989 I believe it was when we had a freak winter storm that did shut down all the bridges except for the Main St bridge. People in downtown were stuck for hours and hours. I lived in Arlington at the time and ended up going up North Main to Heckscher to the ferry and crossing over the river into Mayport and then to Arlington and still made it home faster than many. If the ferry had been shut down I would have been stuck downtown like everyone else.
It was 1989, but it was actually the old Acosta bridge that was the only one that was open. I had to drive from Baymeadows to the northside that night and it took about 4 hours.
Remember it well. Thank God I was home & didnt have to go anywhere. As I recall, all the bridges except old Acosta were closed for 2-3 days. Even after the snow stopped, ice was a problem.
What a weekend. The ONLY time Ive ever seen my neighborhood covered in snow.
Quote from: Ocklawaha on May 30, 2012, 11:00:36 PM
Quote from: fsujax on May 30, 2012, 09:52:52 AM
So we lost the Mathews Bridge, Wonderwood and the Ferry during the storm. If we ever had a major hurricane we would be screwed! Infrastructure can only handle so much mother nature. The more modes the merrier, but at some point they all will fail.
True enough, if we set off an atomic bomb all systems would fail. If we had a 8.5 earthquake all systems would fail. If we had a category 5 hurricane, everything would fail.
But in the normal, day to day challenges, a bridge shut down, a ferry, a tropical storm, having a mixed grid of multiple modes allows a city or transportation agency to shift from one to the other. In the case of an ice storm for example, the commuter rail, water taxi and streetcars would be running long after auto, bus and monorail traffic had shut down.
In the age of the private railroads operating their own passenger trains, back when Jacksonville Terminal was still a buzz of activity, the Russians placed nuke missiles in Cuba. Suddenly all hell broke loose as Florida schools and communities braced for a possible nuke attack. The Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line, Southern Railway and the Florida East Coast, in cooperation with our Jacksonville Terminal Company kept passenger trains preassembled and ready to roll to evacuate students from our area schools. We had drills in Ortega and John NC Stockton elementary schools where we lined up and marched out to the tracks where a train would meet us. Today, we have two Amtrak trains daily, no commuter rail, no regional rail, no light rail, no streetcars and a very limited monorail. If this situation happened tomorrow, Jacksonville would be in a much worse position then we were in back in 1962.
One thing is a certainty, as long as FDOT/JTA devote virtually 100% of our transportation resources to highways and highway based transit, we won't have a mobility option if such an emergency arises again.
Jacksonville desperately needs to diversify our transportation system, develop a matrix of interconnected modes and routes. We also need an 'authority' that deals with mass transit and NOTHING ELSE.
If anyone DARE (well except Stephen Dare) to argue with Uncle Ock, they can shut the blazing frak up and call it a day, because Uncle Ock got you covered!
Ocklawaha for 2014!-Josh