SHA Says Solomon's Bridge Safe
Do you trust the Government to tell the truth?
Ha!
If SHA has photo or video proof of underwater bridge piling
inspections to show they are safe, then lets see it
...see editorial:
Spend Money on Infrastructure, Not Corruption
Governor Thomas
Johnson Bridge was closed due to cracks 20 years ago
State lacks contingency plan if bridge closes again
Are Southern Maryland's Bridges Safe?
SOLOMON'S ISLAND (Aug 2) --- After the horrible
collapse of the interstate bridge in Minneapolis, officials will
likely be reviewing inspection procedures for Maryland bridges,
especially the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge, which was shut down
in an emergency measure in 1988 after stress cracks developed at the
top of every support beam holding up the bridge.
Steel bands were wrapped around the piers to provide strength and
the lack of any type of contingency plan for moving traffic across
the Patuxent River was revealed when State Highway Administration
officials merely twiddled their thumbs.
Twenty years later, and the SHA still has not developed a
contingency plan to move traffic in case the bridge has to close
again, which is not far fetched, as it happened once already.
If traffic across the Solomon's bridge came to a halt, due to either
being closed or falling into the Patuxent River, officials would
simply put up big electric signs on Rt. 235 in California, and at
Rt. 4 in Prince Frederick, diverting traffic across the Benedict
Bridge, which is also only two lanes and even has a swing draw
bridge which is subject to occasional openings.
That bridge was reduced to one lane several years ago which surface
work, similar to what was taking place in Minneapolis, was
conducted. This bridge is older than the Solomon's bridge,
opening to traffic in the 1950's. The Rt. 301 Governor Harry Nice
Bridge opened before WWII, in 1940, and also is only two lanes, one
in each direction.
None of the bridges have any real degree of security for sabotage,
just occasional patrols by police. Large trucks, big
enough to contain explosives, are routinely parked under the
Governor Thomas Johnson bridge at Solomon's.
Sen. Roy Dyson has been proposing a second span to cross the
Patuxent River at Solomon's Island and recently told ST. MARY'S
TODAY that he had requested the Secretary of Transportation to plan
for a four lane bridge, large enough to handle all traffic should
the existing bridge have to be replaced, to allow for an evacuation
route for Calvert citizens to be able to flee an emergency at either
the Cove Point LNG plant or the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant.
In the 20 years since the shutdown of the Solomon's Bridge, the
missions at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station have soared with
the workforce more than doubling to more than 20,000 employees.
Reports have come to officials that there are major holes in the
underwater portions of the large piers which hold up the Solomon's
Bridge, a report that is very difficult to confirm.
St. Mary's Sheriff Tim Cameron told ST. MARY'S TODAY that he has
been on many dives in the area of the bridge and that the current is
extremely strong, making any inspection of the bridge piers very
difficult.
"At Point Patience, just north of the bridge, we dropped a line to
measure the depth and had it at 110 feet and at 45 feet you couldn't
believe how strong the current was, like a speeding vehicle," said
Cameron.
Sheriff Cameron said that fire and emergency agencies in Calvert and
St. Mary's have contingency plans for rescue scenarios and as a
result of the DC sniper case, developed closing plans, but said that
he was unaware of any plans for a possible collapse.
To donate to help those in need at the Twin Cities go to the
website www.RedCrossTC.org
  
SOLOMON'S ISLAND (Aug. 2) A river level view of the 1940 Gov. Harry
Nice Bridge which carries the busy north-south artery, Rt. 301,
across the Potomac River, the only bridge to cross the Potomac south
of Washington, D.C. . During WWII, sentries were posted to watch for
German saboteurs which were feared could be dropped on the shore by
German U Boats, which did happen along the Atlantic coast. No such
sentries are posted to keep out terrorists from planting charges
under the bridge support. When the 9/11 attacks took place in
Washington and New York and evacuation routes were announced,
motorists were told to use Rt. 301. This bridge comes to a
halt each day during normal rush hour conditions and would not be
able to handle any additional evacuation traffic. Still, local
officials howled like wounded coyotes over the prospect of a new
bridge being built to handle rail traffic diverted from Washington
in order to avoid having hazardous cargo sent in the underground
train tunnel which leaves Union Station and passes under the area of
the U.S. Capitol and the Mall. Still, these trains continue to
travel under the Mall and are not inspected, and no plans are
underway for a new bridge which could handle rail and vehicle
traffic. SHA held a community hearing in May to get some
feedback from residents of Charles County, but the bridge is far
more important to the region to let some few NIMBYs to stop a new
bridge from being built.
Center, the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge, spanning the Patuxent
River between Calvert and St. Mary's is a vital transportation link
to the Naval Air Warfare Center at Pax River NAS. This bridge
was opened to traffic in 1977 and in 1988 was closed for three
months after stress cracks opened up at the top of the support beams
which hold up the spans. Large cranes on barges were brought
in to use for construction crews to wrap the beams with steel bands.
Right, a view of the tall support piers which are wrapped with steel
bands that engineers for the State of Maryland determined would
provide proper support for the bridge, which, so far, so good. The
chief problem at present for the Solomon's bridge is that the bridge
only has two lanes, one in each direction. Crashes stop
traffic for hours several times a week as the long span without a
service lane, makes it difficult for officials to be able to remove
the injured and untangle the wrecks.
ST. MARY'S TODAY photos
Reader
Feedback: Do you favor the construction of a
new span over the Patuxent at Solomon's?
Send your views to
staff1@stmarystoday.com
 
A potential problem, which was severe enough for officials to close
the Gov. Thomas Johnson Bridge at Solomon's, are the stress cracks
at the top of each of the tall piers which support the bridge deck.
These cracks are visible to the eye as the white streaks partially
covered by the steel bands. Another possible problem is the strong
current which could erode the river bottom around the base of the
piers, a cause behind dozens of other bridge failures around the
nation, according to an engineering expert interviewed following the
collapse in Minneapolis on CNN.
Right, the decking on the Benedict bridge, which carries Rt. 231
between Charles and Calvert counties over the Patuxent River and is
a busy regional traffic route, was replaced about five years ago
while the bridge remained open, but reduced to a single lane with
temporary traffic lights set up to allow for a long flow of traffic
to proceed with waits of up to a half hour to cross.
ST. MARY'S TODAY photos
 
After
seeing this view of the Solomon's bridge, will you drive across the
bridge with your finger on the electric window button?
These steel bands around the stress cracks on the Solomon's bridge
are impressive, until one views what took place in Minnesota. Right,
the Benedict Bridge opens for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers boat on
a tour of the Patuxent River with Congressman Steny Hoyer (D. Md.
5th).
Many North American bridges are unsafe
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