Ot...ship hits bridge

[JPD]

"And then there will be the peanut gallery full of folks with no real comprehension of the complexity of the task offering there "wise" assessments of what a dumbass he is being."

 

[Ischgl99]

Those ships run on bunker c...basically tar lol. Even after heating that crap up those centrifuges have got to be some stout units.

Centrifuges are used in the tar sands in Canada, these things can handle a lot!

 

[Ries]

If the General in charge gets the job done expeditiously and oversees completion of a better bridge, I am happy to see him get another pay grade. Overseeing this job will be nightmare trying to keep everyone on schedule, avoid fraud, keep the shippers AND environmentalists reasonably happy. He will spend night and day fielding calls from people who think they have a right to be angry with any decision he makes and feel superior to him simply because they have a different opinion. There will be countless contractor issues, likely rework of jobs not done according to spec, vendors not supplying the contracted materials on time and according to specification not to mention people undercutting him in Washington and associates vying for his job. This will not be a job for the faint of heart. And then there will be the peanut gallery full of folks with no real comprehension of the complexity of the task offering their "wise" assessments of what a dumbass he is being.

I recommend two pay grades and early retirement. That would be a bargain for a job well done.

Denis

Actually, the officer in charge of demolition and clearing the ship channel is not a man, not a general, and wont have much to do with the building of a better bridge.
The commanding officer of the Army Corps of Engineers for Maryland is
Colonel Estee S. Pinchasin, officer since ROTC in 1988, with an undergraduate degree in computer science and a masters in civil engineering from Stanford.

"COL Pinchasin’s awards and decorations include two Bronze Star Medals, six Meritorious Service Medals, three Army Commendation Medals, two Army Achievement Medals, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, NATO Medal, Parachutist Badge, Air Assault Badge and the Army Engineer Association’s Bronze de Fleury Medal."
My guess is she will do just fine against vendors and the peanut gallery, most of whom have neither served in war zones, nor jumped out of perfectly good airplanes.

The building of a new bridge will be, no doubt, designed by civilian engineers, built by civilian contractors, and the USACE will only be involved in permitting and consultation.

The Value of Partnership | Port of Baltimore Directory

In her 25-year career with the U.S. Army, Col. Estee Pinchasin has served in many roles — as a Battalion Logistics Officer, Battalion Liaison Officer and most recently as the 69th Commander of the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Baltimore District.

www.pobdirectory.com

 

[standardparts]

Actually, the officer in charge of demolition and clearing the ship channel is not a man, not a general, and wont have much to do with the building of a better bridge.
The commanding officer of the Army Corps of Engineers for Maryland is
Colonel Estee S. Pinchasin, officer since ROTC in 1988, with an undergraduate degree in computer science and a masters in civil engineering from Stanford.

"COL Pinchasin’s awards and decorations include two Bronze Star Medals, six Meritorious Service Medals, three Army Commendation Medals, two Army Achievement Medals, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, NATO Medal, Parachutist Badge, Air Assault Badge and the Army Engineer Association’s Bronze de Fleury Medal."
My guess is she will do just fine against vendors and the peanut gallery, most of whom have neither served in war zones, nor jumped out of perfectly good airplanes.

The building of a new bridge will be, no doubt, designed by civilian engineers, built by civilian contractors, and the USACE will only be involved in permitting and consultation.

The Value of Partnership | Port of Baltimore Directory

In her 25-year career with the U.S. Army, Col. Estee Pinchasin has served in many roles — as a Battalion Logistics Officer, Battalion Liaison Officer and most recently as the 69th Commander of the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Baltimore District.

www.pobdirectory.com

"she will do just fine against vendors and the peanut gallery, most of whom have neither served in war zones, nor jumped out of perfectly good airplanes."
Thank you Col. Pinchansin and Ries for your service----
Signed..."A member of the peanut gallery".(although I have jumped out of perfectly good airplanes and some of factories I worked seemed like war zones)

 

[Ries]

"she will do just fine against vendors and the peanut gallery, most of whom have neither served in war zones, nor jumped out of perfectly good airplanes."
Thank you Col. Pinchansin and Ries for your service----
Signed..."A member of the peanut gallery".(although I have jumped out of perfectly good airplanes and some of factories I worked seemed like war zones)

I never served, dont thank me. I just pay taxes.

 

[dgfoster]

Actually, the officer in charge of demolition and clearing the ship channel is not a man, not a general, and wont have much to do with the building of a better bridge.
The commanding officer of the Army Corps of Engineers for Maryland is
Colonel Estee S. Pinchasin, officer since ROTC in 1988, with an undergraduate degree in computer science and a masters in civil engineering from Stanford.

"COL Pinchasin’s awards and decorations include two Bronze Star Medals, six Meritorious Service Medals, three Army Commendation Medals, two Army Achievement Medals, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, NATO Medal, Parachutist Badge, Air Assault Badge and the Army Engineer Association’s Bronze de Fleury Medal."
My guess is she will do just fine against vendors and the peanut gallery, most of whom have neither served in war zones, nor jumped out of perfectly good airplanes.

The building of a new bridge will be, no doubt, designed by civilian engineers, built by civilian contractors, and the USACE will only be involved in permitting and consultation.

The Value of Partnership | Port of Baltimore Directory

In her 25-year career with the U.S. Army, Col. Estee Pinchasin has served in many roles — as a Battalion Logistics Officer, Battalion Liaison Officer and most recently as the 69th Commander of the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Baltimore District.

www.pobdirectory.com

And from what I have learned here Command Structure of Key Bridge Project it sounds like no one person is overseeing the entire project. A "unified command" approach is being used where the Army Corp has a head, the environmental people have a lead person, the port has a lead person, etc. I think about six agencies are supposed to work together which sounds an awful lot like a committee to me.

If this is to get done rapidly, I am wondering how it will work out without a single person with final authority to rule on conflicting interests that have to come up between agencies. I do think it would have been (would still be) better to appoint someone with ultimate authority who is not politically affiliated. My intuition would think a high-ranking military commander would make a good choice. Perhaps on down the line frustrations and quagmires might lead to appointment of a project "czar" to have ultimate authority and see that unnecessary delay does not occur.

I offer those opinions realizing that I am really not qualified by training or experience to evaluate this sort of complex problem. I think that puts me in the peanut gallery.

Denis

 

[john.k]

There are to be multiple teams clearing away the wreckage ,and just sorting out squabbles over things like access and operational windows will take up all her time.

 

[gbent]

A big committee allows everyone to take credit when its finished, but no one has to take the responsibility for the cost overruns, time delays, and failures along the way.

 

[standardparts]

A big committee allows everyone to take credit when its finished, but no one has to take the responsibility for the cost overruns, time delays, and failures along the way.

Committees provide great photo shoot optics that will demonstrate to the world a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
As far as failure goes, it's not something to be feared, but to be viewed as a path to a career in consulting, a seat on a board of directors, or given a bit of time maybe a run for political office.

 

[Ox]

It's harder to buy-off >half of a committee than it is one top dog.


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I am Ox and I approve this here post!

 

[Ries]

I have worked as a minor sub on very large construction projects since about 1990. Never seen one that had ONE guy running things. Worked on one that was a billion dollar project- adjusted for inflation, it would be similar to the new bridge cost projections. There were a dozen different contractors, and then the architects, and engineers, and the special tax district people, the actual "owners", politicians, and more.
But it wasnt a "committee", and none of the projects I have worked on- stadiums, light rail, schools, police stations, courthouses, hospitals, youth centers, libraries- all of which were public projects, like this one- had committees like you guys are imagining.
Sure, there are always too many meetings, but that happens on private sector jobs too.
But construction on this scale is something that is a couple thousand years old, and, in the USA, the ways to make a big job work are very established.
Its true, if a politician decides to cancel the project, or wants some special feature (NO electromagnetic catapults!) it can slow things down, but on any big job, they establish a heirarchy of decision making far before the ground is broken, usually with one person being the project manager, who conducts the meetings. They work with the various engineers, the various government agency reps, the general and the subcontractors. They are also, always, answerable to somebody else, higher up, be it a mayor or a billionaire baseball team owner or a transit board made up of 5 city governments.
And only people who need to be there are there, in my experience- the electrical engineer doesnt attend the structural concrete meetings, the diversity in hiring expert from the state doesnt review the seismic studies...

 

[Ox]

Yeah, well I wish the snow-plow guy was at the meetings about parking lot lay-out!

.

 

[Ries]

Yeah, well I wish the snow-plow guy was at the meetings about parking lot lay-out!

.

that'l never happen. I had a friend, an architect, who was the parking lot layout king for a few years. He was really good at geometry. But nobody cares about anything but how many cars you can fit in, and how cheaply.

 

[Ox]

Oh, I see it the opposite of that...

They want to put curves and grassy waterways (not grassy knolls?) and make it all fancy, even tho they don't hold nearly as many cars. Our new skewl has this issue.

In my case, it is my church, and they have concrete curves and sidewalks blocking the ability to run a snowplow through. We have handicapped spots that I try to drag the snow out from, but I only have gravity on my plow. There really isn't anywhere to push it to as it is all boxed in, resulting in those spots ending up being the icy-ist spots in the whole joint...


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I am Ox and I approve this here post!

 

[Garwood]

Ships like this use centrifuges to clean the fuel in the storage tanks and then typically pump it to day tanks the engines draw from. The centrifuges get water and sludge out of the fuel, but they are not perfect. If the ship engineers didn’t have the centrifuges running properly, they could be sending water and/or sludge into the day tank instead of clean fuel.

A chief engineer has a YouTube channel and talks about the various activities on a ship, this video shows the centrifuges on his ship. I used to work for a centrifuge manufacturer and had to overhaul some of these machines, I would rather work on wastewater projects then get sent to one of these ships…

I kept all the Delaval purifiers running on fuel and lube oils on the ship I was. They are very simple machines, but guys can still fuck them up bad if they don't follow the instructions or turn the wrong valve. Most people operating them have absolutely no clue whatsoever how the things actually work. "You have to put water in it to clean the fuel??? WTF?".

 

[Ischgl99]

I kept all the Delaval purifiers running on fuel and lube oils on the ship I was. They are very simple machines, but guys can still fuck them up bad if they don't follow the instructions or turn the wrong valve. Most people operating them have absolutely no clue whatsoever how the things actually work. "You have to put water in it to clean the fuel??? WTF?".

Yup, and you get the deer in the headlights stare when you try to explain how they work.

 

[technocrat]

 

[plastikdreams]

Oh, I see it the opposite of that...

They want to put curves and grassy waterways (not grassy knolls?) and make it all fancy, even tho they don't hold nearly as many cars. Our new skewl has this issue.

In my case, it is my church, and they have concrete curves and sidewalks blocking the ability to run a snowplow through. We have handicapped spots that I try to drag the snow out from, but I only have gravity on my plow. There really isn't anywhere to push it to as it is all boxed in, resulting in those spots ending up being the icy-ist spots in the whole joint...


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I am Ox and I approve this here post!

I think those that design drive throughs get some sick kicks off of making them nearly impossible to navigate without duffing a rim...

 

[72bwhite]

Apparently there is potentially 3 billion of insurance.
But there will also be loads of claims filed on it
All the maritime lawyers will be busy for years.
The new bridge will probably have been built before that end of it is settled

 

[technocrat]

I hear they are going to go ship and cargo value as the liability level, the US will pick up the rest of the tab