Wait, they’re closing BOTH bridges over the Mississippi in Memphis tonight?
Jesus fuck.
In brief: Bridge users can expect delays
Mississippi River
Motorists using either of the bridges spanning the Mississippi River between Memphis and Arkansas should expect delays overnight Monday and Tuesday.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation will stop traffic on the approaches of the Interstate 40 Hernando DeSoto Bridge and the Interstate 55 Bridge for thirty minute intervals between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. so crews can install new overhead message boards.
The message boards will be part of the new SmartWay system. The $31.5 million project includes a new traffic management center, 39 additional message boards, 90 additional traffic cameras and 16 highway advisory radio transmitters.
When complete by October, the system will have a total of 115 traffic cameras, 42 overhead message boards and a city-wide highway advisory radio system.
– From staff reports
Ok, so Memphis is a major transportation hub, and the I40 bridge is on the busiest bridges for over the road transport in the region. The I55 bridge doesn’t move as much traffic as the 40 bridge, but it’s still a very major interstate corridor. I realize the improvements are a good thing, and I applaud the decision to do it at night, as opposed to the usual TDOT policy of beginning work at 8:30am, but seriously, both bridges closed at the same time, for thirty minute intervals, all night?
Here’s an idea:
- Close I40 bridge.
- Divert traffic to I55 bridge.
- Upgrade/repair/improve I40 bridge.
- Divert traffic back to 40, repeat process for 55
Seems like it would be easier on everyone to shut it down and fucking do it, as opposed to closing and opening the bridge every half hour, all night.
It’s this kind of shit that makes me insane. Large corporations/government agencies with apathy engineered right in. No one is getting paid to think, or to make decisions that make sense. They’re getting paid to show up and put form A into slot 3B or make sure no worker spends more than 7.5 minutes working under incandescent light. Or to make sure the TPS reports are filed in reverse alphabetical order by 18:36 GMT. Why do they care about those things? Because that’s the policy sir. We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.? War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength!
Ok, I’m back. Seriously though, it does drive me fucking insane to be told that someone can’t make an obvious and logical decison because “That’s not our policy” or “I’m not authorized to do that”. I think the same applies to the fact that no one has suggested, I dunno, maybe just closing one bridge at a time, accomplishing the work in less time with less trouble for both workers and drivers. Maybe the impending recession will force a rethink in the current prevailing policy that seems to not only condone, but actively promote, a system in which personal responsibility doesn’t exist.
Warm Regards,
Winston Smith
