Mr Sparkle

http://photosilke.blogspot.com/2013/03/historic-photos.html High resolution photos dating back to civil war times. Water and rail transportation features prominently

Do Sanborn maps show addresses?

BTW, The steel pier caps (visible when you use the lower deck) on the approaches to the BSB are fracture critical members, although not of the gusset plate design

And a rail corridor -- the Cincinnati-Indianapolis rail corridor was upgraded with heavier rail and a new yard built at the Honda plant. BTW automakers prefer to not build new manufacturing plants in urbanized areas close to labor pools because most urbanized areas are in non-compliance with EPA air quality standards, so the EPA permitting process for these auto plants takes too long and costs too much for most automakers to put up with. And where does a significant amount of air pollution come from?? Yep, cars. So if you want to attract an auto plant to your metro area, reduce the driving in it first to be in compliance with EPA air quality standards -- as Portland, OR recently came into compliance with! My thoughts are that they also require a heckuva lot of contiguous area too; and I suspect the just in time delivery required of their suppliers support fast transportation access and ancillary development of supplier plants that can't be accommodated in dense areas. Are rural areas generally anti Labor or pro-Labor?

And a rail corridor -- the Cincinnati-Indianapolis rail corridor was upgraded with heavier rail and a new yard built at the Honda plant. BTW automakers prefer to not build new manufacturing plants in urbanized areas close to labor pools because most urbanized areas are in non-compliance with EPA air quality standards, so the EPA permitting process for these auto plants takes too long and costs too much for most automakers to put up with. And where does a significant amount of air pollution come from?? Yep, cars. So if you want to attract an auto plant to your metro area, reduce the driving in it first to be in compliance with EPA air quality standards -- as Portland, OR recently came into compliance with! So maybe if 32 was upgraded between Batavia and Portsmouth, along with the NS line that runs parallel to the road for quite a ways, maybe we could get an auto plant in Brown or Adams County? :) We already have a closed one just outside of Batavia

Wow. What a difference. That third one is a disgrace! You assume that the parameters behind the electrical distribution have not changed over the years. Power needs have definitely increased --- I doubt that the 3rd substation can be contained in any type of building at a reasonable cost and still meet safety requirements of the day.

Union Centre was a simple diamond interchange constructed on greenfield. This is a complex interchange in a dense urban area.

I think it will work, how on earth did you read THAT in what I wrote?? I am saying, provide some incentive to the private investment. If the ROI meets goals (metrics will need to be determined), then the required level of private investment required should drop. Risk/Reward

By what means is the expected ROI captured to offset future operating costs? Such as an assessment on property taxes commiserate with the proximity of the parcel to the route. I wonder if there is a way to allow private financing to be rolled back once a certain tip-over amount is reached on these sources. I'm sure this has been discussed before an in progress with the SID talks...

I'd wager St Louis has the same suburbs vs. city conflicts as Cincy. Chicago 'knows' about StL due to the downstate vs. Chicago thing and the Cubs - Redbirds rivalry

From the tone of the piece, it seems like John was not aware of the fact that the streetcar was planned to be a part of a larger light rail system, or did not think much of it. This fact should be broadcast more --- all I am saying

Why one of the most vocal proponents of the streetcar project (and transit project in general) did not know this about the streetcar tracks previously? To me this should be a huge selling point of the streetcar and an effective means of leveraging the infrastructure we are constructing now for the future use --- I think we could use our local cost of the current project as a local match for a future light rail project. This would assuage the negativity of the "streetcar goes nowhere" crowd.

From: http://homeofthebraves.com/ "Turner Field needs $150 million in infrastructure work alone (replacing the seats, repairing and upgrading lighting, etc.), none of which would significantly enhance the fan experience. Why do they need to replace seats.....from what I remember, the seats from old Riverfront Stadium had been there from Day 1

^Its because you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a state trooper in Ohio.

That read that in something that Angie Schmitt from Streetsblog had written. Can't find it at the moment. She's probably not the authority to trust. Go to to here, page 28 of the PDF (Figure 301-2E) will show you the lane widths used by ODOT on the interstate system http://www.dot.state.oh.us/Divisions/Engineering/Roadway/DesignStandards/roadway/Location%20and%20Design%20Manual/Section_300_7-19-2013.pdf In the urban charts, in some instances an additional 1-2 ft is required for curb offsets in addition to lane width which sometimes can be inferred as 13' in some instances, but certainly does not predominate. On the MLK interchange project, they are in fact using 11'-6" lanes on I-71 to save space

Simply put, that is FALSE

You would think.....but if that hasn;t happened by now, well.... DAY, CMH and IND have been vying for flyers for years now, and with great success. DAY is 45 minutes from the northern part of Cincy and is small enough to navigate quickly so the home to plane time is equivalent to CVG.

Is that a Manhole in the mid-ground of the picture between the rails (in front of the light pole)? If so it appears the concrete slab is already cracked in that location, a colder climate that would be a big source of deterioration.

I always thought to myself that a rudimentary personal finance class offered by the state or local government would provide more benefits than increasing welfare benefits, etc.

This "solution" to the financial crisis is hilarious- basically, "If we just made more people's retirement less secure we wouldn't be in this situation." That's obviously not the answer. The answer is to fix unemployment. My solution would solve the unfunded pension issue by not giving special, preferential treatment to city employees. Solving unemployment would also help but that's another discussion altogother. My only point is that pensions are a horrible investment for a city to be making. 401k is matching is much less risky for the city and lets people control their own destiny. It doesn't let you control your destiny when you're set to retire after a lifetime of doing everything right and the market crashes leaving your 401k worth far less than you had planned. Defined benefit pensions don't do that. And pensions aren't meant to be an investment for the company or municipality. A retirement plan/account should have many different kinds of savings vehicles to spread your risk, and those risk categories and percentages of your balance in each risk level should be fluid and change based upon your years to retirement. You need to occasionally rebalance your account to maintain those percentages....Are you aware that a 401 k can contain many other accounts besides Mutual Funds (Stocks)?

submit to failblog?

^I suspect "hard-scape" ramp NB I-71 improvements were not considered since the status of the entrance ramp depends on what is done with the MLK/Uptown I-71 access/interchange project: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,26580.0.html

This bridge was not part of the publicly maintained infrastructure system; so even with flush funding coffers this tragic accident would have still happened.