Brenda Raines pointed at a crack in her windshield.That happened about a month ago, she said, as she drove on River Road under the Sixth Street Viaduct.
Raines' frustration only deepened after news broke this week that a $66.5 million project to replace it would have been pushed back because of political wrangling over a proposed rail-to-river barge terminal.
That issue was resolved Thursday after an amendment that would have blocked funding was nixed by the Ohio House.
The 53-year-old bridge, also called the Waldvogel Viaduct, is a main thoroughfare between Cincinnati's West Side to Downtown, carrying 28,000 vehicles a day. It is the city's worst bridge, officials said, and is in dire need of repair.
For years the viaduct has held the unsavory title of being the only bridge maintained by the city that is rated in "poor" condition. On a scale of 0-9, with nine being the best condition, it was rated three this year, said Michael Moore, director of Cincinnati's Department of Transportation and Engineering.
So no one has 65 million to fund crumbling infrastructure but in "Progress" City there's plenty of city money to throw around for a rail line that won't service 28,000 people for an entire year!
Here's the proposal for how the city plans to fund their Thomas the Tank Engine boondoggle............
What We Have
Urban Circulator Grant $ 25 million
OKI CMAQ Grant $ 4 million
City Bond Financing$ 64 million
Private funding (Duke)$ 6.5 million
Total $ 99.5million
So the city has the ability to borrow 64 million to fund "Gordon" Mallory's pet project but will not do anything to fund a vital artery into town unless someone else pays for it.
Now that's "progressive"!
2 comments:
I grew up in Sayler Park and have fond memories of travelling downtown on the Waldvogel Viaduct. Not only does the bridge desperately need maintenance today, but the narrow lanes, short merges, poor signage & lighting, 5 way intersections, steel piers in the road, and railroad crossings makes navigating this thing a deathtrap. It's surprising there aren't more accidents than there are.
You also have to consider that the Waldvogel, in reality, links together some of the poorest areas of town (lower Price Hill, Sedamsville, Riverside). Most of the surrounding industry is dried up and today it's just a throughfare to get from downtown to the west side without stoplights. This thing is going to have to collapse on its own before the city replaces it...
It goes back to the way government does things. They spend money on non-essential shit. Then, when schools and infrastructure are falling apart from neglect, they raise taxes based on that. Politicians add insult to injury by shaming those who resist tax increases do so because they hate children and want to kill old people.
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