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INFRASTRUCTURES
* USA - UPS driver describes bridge collapseCottage Grove,Minn,USA -eTrucker, by Sarah Thomson -7 Sept 2007: -- "I can’t get the smell of the fire out of my nose," says UPS driver Bill Wagner of Cottage Grove, Minn... The late afternoon of Wednesday, Aug. 1, was like any other workday rush hour for commuters on the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis. Traffic inched through the 45 mph construction zone as frazzled parents drove children from school, office workers traveled home, and UPS driver Bill Wagner headed south, hauling an 8-foot pup behind his rig... A school bus full of children happened to be in front of Wagner’s truck, and Wagner honked his horn, to their delight... Then the bridge crumbled... “Everything got blurry ‘cause I was shaking so bad,” Wagner said. There was no time to think... His truck swayed from left to right. Then Wagner saw air as his truck tumbled down the concrete... “I saw the treetops through the window, and I thought I was gonna die. …The thing I was thinking about was dying, and I was all right with that. You just accept it"... At that point, he must have blacked out. The first sense that returned to him was his hearing, and in his dizzy state, he thought he heard rain. Then he smelled diesel and realized fuel was pouring into his cab... The next time he had to cross one was especially difficult... “I didn’t know whether to drive over fast or slow,” he said. “I pulled over and had to think. I decided to go fast. Now I go as fast as I can. I don’t care about the tickets. … I can’t be on the damn things. When I’m on a bridge, the road starts trembling, and I think it’s gonna fall..." (Photo: UPS driver Bill Wagner of Cottage Grove, Minn)
* South Africa - Road users are being punished
“It is our contention that this policy is incorrect and congestion should be relieved by extending investment in road infrastructure” Cape Town,South Africa -The Cape Business News -6 Sep 2007: -- It is the government’s argument that road congestion can be adequately dealt with, and the country’s infrastructure and freight effectiveness improved, by investing in other infrastructural areas such as rail and public transport. This view has by and large been accepted by the South African public. So says Garth Bolton, joint CEO, Cargo Carriers, and Director, Road Freight Association... “It is our contention that this policy is incorrect and congestion should be relieved by extending investment in road infrastructure,” he says however... The congestion caused by lack of roads creates a huge antagonism towards trucks, which are seen to further aggravate the situation...
*A CSRI study has shown that rail moves one third of the country’s freight:
• Trucks represent 4% of the number of vehicles on South African roads; however they travel five times further than average cars, and therefore constitute 20% of all road traffic.
• Growth in the vehicle population has exceeded 7% in the last number of years. This compound growth means doubling vehicle population in ten years.
Logically then expenditure on busy roads would relieve not only congestion for two thirds of the freight moved but would also relieve congestion for the vast majority of car users... Somehow the government views a better road system as inefficient, and is effectively instituting a punitive system against its own citizens who are obviously in favour of road use. Roads are not a drain, but a positive benefit to the economy and development of the country... “The government should be profiting from the provision of roads, and meeting the requirements of its citizens,” Bolton says... (Photo: fotosearch.com -S.Africa, karoo road)
• Trucks represent 4% of the number of vehicles on South African roads; however they travel five times further than average cars, and therefore constitute 20% of all road traffic.
• Growth in the vehicle population has exceeded 7% in the last number of years. This compound growth means doubling vehicle population in ten years.
Logically then expenditure on busy roads would relieve not only congestion for two thirds of the freight moved but would also relieve congestion for the vast majority of car users... Somehow the government views a better road system as inefficient, and is effectively instituting a punitive system against its own citizens who are obviously in favour of road use. Roads are not a drain, but a positive benefit to the economy and development of the country... “The government should be profiting from the provision of roads, and meeting the requirements of its citizens,” Bolton says... (Photo: fotosearch.com -S.Africa, karoo road)
Labels: infrastructures
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