Eigth and State

Please, please, please keep thinking that! It's beautiful! "Fleeing in droves for Warren, Clermont, Butler, etc." This is not beautiful. It's the reason why Cincinnati is losing population.

Did district 11 really vote 100% democrat? How is that possible?

I like how the driveway loops under the front steps of the capitol. I can't say I remember seeing that pattern before. Thanks for the photos!

^The Minnesota bridge apparently collapsed due to both a design flaw and extraordinary loading conditions during rehabilitation. The results of the design flaw, buckled gusset plates, were photographed in an inspection but nothing was done about it.

Not just pigs, but flying pigs!

Those positions were won on name recogition and a long history of service. Neil and Donovan were both new names.

Thanks for posting!

Wow, there are so many modes of failure in those photos, it is hard to work out which happened first. Here's what I think caused the collapse: Before: <img src="http://bridgestunnels.com/wp-content/gallery/south-fork-grassy-creek-bridge-ky-1657/20111030-_dsc2503.jpg" alt="" class="bbc_img" /> Clearly, the gusset plate is nearly separated by severe section loss due to rust. Its interesting that the rust was cutting a fairly clean line across the plate. After: <img src="http://bridgestunnels.com/wp-content/gallery/south-fork-grassy-creek-bridge-ky-1657/20121104-_dsc3300.jpg" alt="" class="bbc_img" /> Here the gusset plat has separated. Note that these two photos may not be of the same joint, but it is likely that all of the lower chord joints had similar defects. The first separation may have happened here, or possibly the corresponding joint on the other truss: This joint is underwater in the after photo. This would also be the joint with the highest loading at the time of the collapse, assuming that the tractor was positioned just ahead of the hay, which can be seen in the photos. Once this joint was broken, the panel to the upper right of the circle would rack, causing bending of the overloaded upper chord. At the same time, the full weight of the tractor and bridge would be transferred to just one truss instead of two, effectively doubling the load on the remaining truss causing it to fail the same way, while also inducing a twisting motion. Progressive failure results, including in this instance, the bridge abutment, which was pulled toward the creek.

Wow! I could spend hours looking at these photos. Thanks for taking the time, and thanks for sharing. Sherman, you caught a before-and-after series that is very uncommon. The broken pier especially is striking. I have a question, though: was the victim driving a vehicle, and if so, what happened to it? Was some of the damage to the bridge due to removal of the vehicle?

^I saw those girders too. It was amazing to see those big things on I-75. That was probably the largest load I have ever seen on an interstate.

That's all true, but is gasoline also becoming less affordable? If you made $10 an hour over an 8 hour workday in 2000 and gasoline was $1.50 a gallon, you could afford to buy 53.3 gallons of gasoline for that money. If your wage rose to $15 an hour by 2012 but gasoline rose to $3.50 a gallon, you could afford 34.3 gallons of gasoline. Gasoline would be becoming more unaffordable. I saw an extensive analysis spreadsheet on another forum where a poster had taken the time to look up average income, gasoline prices, average housing costs, etc., and he concluded that the average person in the United States is worse off now than at any time since 1983, when gasoline prices and other costs of living were at an all time high compared to wages.

I find it interesting that the proposed Cincinnati Streetcar and the proposed OASIS commuter rail seem to have opposite objectives, yet they are both being proposed in the same city.

I am surprised that anyone would even consider demolition while saving the front. it's kind of like cutting away all but one side of a cardboard box: what is going to keep that one side from falling over? Perhaps the best thing is to remove and incorporate the facade into another building, either on the same site or elsewhere. Is it possible to dismantle terra cotta for reuse?

Those were a lot of photos! Thanks for sharing.

^The plan mentions the possibility of re-activating the old B&O Toledo line on the west side of the Mill Creek as a way to bypass the Mill Creek Valley lines, an idea that I first heard from Jake on this site. I didn't see any mention of use of the transit center for passenger rail, however. I am still not clear if the transit center will support heavy rail or not.

Not that it matters, but for historical interest did the Columbia County Home sort of morph into the county jail? The aerial photo seems to indicate that they are part of the same complex, with a shared driveway, etc.

^Didn't know about the public meeting. Thanks for the plan, though. There's some good data in there.

I can think of two good reasons to extend the OASIS line westward from the boathouse: 1. If the 3-C line is ever built through the "back door" route over the OASIS line, it would allow a connection to the transit center. Furthermore, if the 3-C line is ever built in a loop including the OASIS line, the transit center, and one of the Mill Creek Valley lines, it would allow a train to return to Cleveland without a complicating turning movement. 2. Rail America controls the OASIS line and the ditch track, which are only a couple thousand feet apart across the riverfront. They connect the two via trackage rights over the Mill Creek Valley lines. While it may not be a great advantage for Rail America to connect the OASIS with the ditch track across the riverfront for their own freight operations, any traffic that can be removed from the Mill Creek Valley lines will benefit CSX and NS, because the throat of the yard near Ludlow Viaduct is a system bottleneck. It is not necessary, and may not even be possible, to connect through the transit center, though. A route south of the stadiums may be better. For commuter rail, extending the OASIS line to the transit center will only benefit if the commuter rail actually gets built. It seems that there is some money to connect to the transit center while we are still awaiting a decision on whether the rest of the project will ever get built.

ColDayMan beat me to Monroe, Michigan.

^According to the Hamilton County Auditor, the property is owned by Mt. Auburn Housing Incorporated.

According to the Hamilton County Auditor, University Plaza is owned by Anchor Corporate Developments LLC, and the property is valued by the Auditor at about $4.5 million.

^Toll the interstates! Yes, I know that the feds will prevent it. I would prefer that over some other new tax, though. I think increasing the earnings tax would be counter-productive, because it will tend to push businesses out of the city.

Wow! Regenerative braking!

Historically, in the era from, say, 1880 to 1940, many industries generated their own power by burning coal. Today, they purchase electricity from the big utilities, who usually still generate it by burning coal, but the site is far away from other development and the emissions are at least partly controlled. Moving away from coal smoke was a major reason why people moved to the suburbs. This is mostly not a problem anymore. The one thing that industries are still notorious for is heavy trucks.

I've been to Space Aliens in Bismarck, in 1999. Glad to see it's still there.