A major and historical in the worst kind of way thing happened in Atlanta this past week, when an entire block of I-85, well, broke. A massive fire started underneath the bridge portion of I-85, and for whatever unfortunate reasons, the joints holding up a chunk of the interstate, basically fell off, leaving a sizable and impassable hole in the bridge, severing the stretch of highway that connects Montgomery, Alabama all the way to Richmond, Virginia, going northbound.
The fallout is fairly substantial, and the repercussions of having an impassable chasm are massive. Anyone going northbound in, or through Atlanta will now have to reroute on either I-75 or just taking I-285 around the city. GA-400 isn’t accessible going north anymore, because the hole is quite literally right before the exit to 400 North.
Sure, I’ve made plenty of jokes about how the hole basically reminds me of the bridge jump from Speed, or how the fires were basically when Tyrion Lannister used wildfire to blow shit up, and the internet has once again made a mockery of Atlanta and it’s apparent penchant for stupid shit like this. Fortunately, nobody was hurt and there were no casualties aside from thousands of pissed off commuters, otherwise such might be in bad taste. However, the reality of the situation is that this is going to be a massive and inconveniencing situation for all of Atlanta, and those who need to pass through Atlanta.
The initial plans for demolition, repair and reconstruction of the hole has been estimated to Thanksgiving: eight full fucking months. Why this is the case is completely beyond me, but I can’t say that I’m the least bit surprised, having worked in the government for a spell. Bureaucrats and talking heads need to small talk their way to actual discussion, which is basically a blame game, and then there’s the whole money game, where everyone is going to try and line their pockets as much as they can through this whole ordeal, and then maybe two months in, they’ll actually make some announcements, and some work will actually get started. And then, they’ll blab on about how it takes time for concrete to cure, safety tests to be conducted, and all sorts of rhetoric that means that with a Thanksgiving deadline in place, we can probably expect it to be done by MLK day, since nobody works over holidays.
One of the first things I thought about was the story of when a massive gaping sinkhole appeared in Japan. But someway, somehow, the Japanese were able to repair and fix the entire thing in the span of like a weekend, and by the following Monday morning, the entire sinkhole was repaired, and if nobody told you that a sinkhole had formed the previous weekend, one wouldn’t be the wiser that there was a disaster just days prior. But the point remains, Japan can fix a gaping sinkhole in the span of days, while Atlanta is estimating over half of a year to repair a gap in the road that’s probably an equivalent of size as the sinkhole in Japan, if not smaller. Something isn’t right about this comparison.
It’s bad when we’re basically told that this gaping hole in I-85 is the new normal, and that we need to accept that traversing the city is going to require a lot more travel time, planning, and that if we want to do anything near the region of despair, to expect a lot more grief.
Get used to it, this is the new normal until shit finally gets done, basically.
The thing is, I’ve been kind of following this story as it’s developed over the last few days. Naturally, when something like this occurs, the people want to know the how, something like this occurs. Reasons, or people to be held accountable, are what people like me want to know. Conspiracy theories arise, like how a fire can somehow destroy concrete, asphalt and metal.
So far, what is established is that three people were arrested and accused of starting the fire that got out of control; to no surprise, they were basically homeless bums who gathered underneath the bridge allegedly to smoke crack cocaine. Somewhere along the incident, a fire started, raged out of control on some barrels underneath the bridge allegedly containing PVC materials, and then the next thing we all know, the bridge basically falls off, resulting in the giant gap in I-85.
My initial take is that sure, it’s understandable that people are upset at the homeless guys whose initial fire started the whole incident, but I’m more intrigued and questioning about the barrels underneath the bridge that supposedly were the fuel that burned hot enough to deteriorate the support materials holding I-85 up above the ground. Like, PVC, does that shit really burn that hot? Furthermore, just what construction shortcuts were used to get the bridge suspended, but not strong enough to withstand fire in spite of its concrete, mortar and metal construction?
Regardless of how much jail time some bums get, how pissed off commuters get, my eyes are trained in on the builders that appear to have built a shoddy bridge, and the people who allowed it to happen. Also, the geniuses who thought it was okay and acceptable to store alleged PVC and other junk materials in barrels out in public, like underneath bridges. It’s easy to point fingers at the homeless guys and bums for starting the fire, but some crooked people who were paid to and expected to be responsible seem like the bigger problems in my opinion.
This will be an interesting story to follow over the next few months, but I suspect that no matter what is ultimately revealed, it’s going to be only a shred of the actual truth, with undoubtedly a number of excuses, scapegoats and fall men to arise, and lots of people in the background who will manage to take a terrible situation and turn it into profit.
