Infrastructure photography by Michal Cialowicz
Infrastructure photography by Michal Cialowicz
Dan McNichol is a best selling author and an award-winning journalist. In 2008, McNichol won the Robert F. Boger Award for outstanding construction writing while chronicling Minnesota’s disastrous I-35W bridge collapse. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) named McNichol as one of nation’s outstanding writers. He was honored with a PhD in Engineering and Technology for his publications and his contributions to the fields of engineering and construction. His articles and work have appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer and numerous other periodicals. McNichol is an editorial board member and columnist for CENews and its Rebuilding America’s Infrastructure.
McNichol’s film credits include numerous appearances on: The BBC, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, ABC World News Tonight, CBS News, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, The News Hour and National Public Radio and many more news organizations. He has consulted for National Geographic. McNichol has also worked with CCTV, the Chinese television network, on a business program produced in Washington, D.C. to better foster economic relations between the two nations. Dan is now appearing on the History Channel’s new series titled, “The History of Mankind.”
Today, McNichol is on a national tour called Dire States. He’s advocating we build smarter, faster, and better. He’s seeking answers to why ASCE’s Report Card gives the nation’s infrastructure a grade of D+. He’s driving the message around the USA – literally. McNichol’s research vehicle is a 1949 Hudson, an original Detroit lead sled that’s as old, rusty and energy defunct as America’s infrastructure.
Join his drive around on DireStates.com.
Salt Lake City, Utah: 12:4:13: Dire States rolled into Salt Lake City tonight from Denver just after both cities were hit with an arctic blast. I am speaking at an event early in the AM with a hundred contractors that my partner Case Construction Equipment put together. Just in time to see this new street car roll down the avenues. This new Sugar House transit system is opening tomorrow. So cool. Connecting condos to class rooms – Sugar House residential area with the University of Utah (someday soon). But love the idea of revitalizing a 100-year old “linear park” that demanded street car like action and not buses or faster trains. Check out story in Salt Lake City’s Tribune, the source of my factoids and image above.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/57213783-90/lake-salt-stop-streetcar.html.csp
11:27:13 (Thanksgiving Eve): Cousin Teddy emailed me today. He’s like a brother. He’s been following the Dire States tour. Sebastian, his son, loves Hudsons – especially Doc Hudson. Teddy wrote:
Hey Danny!
By the looks of my inbox, your efforts are paying off! Hope this is actually a good bill…..
Happy Thanksgiving to you and the clan, wherever you may be!
What Teddy sent was a link to an email pushed onto to him by his US Senator Mark Warner of Virginia. The note asks him to sign in and support the senator’s infrastructure initiative, a bill called Building and Renewing Infrastructure for Development and Growth in Employment Act or The BRIDGE Act. The aim is to get $10 billion in seed money to start a national infrastructure bank as opposed to state infrastructure banks. Some states already have them – many do not. A federal bank, it is reasoned, would bring along those states not yet funding their own institutions. All this so we can rebuild broken systems that are leaving us disadvantaged when it comes to economic competition. I agree.
The Dire States of America need centralized coordination when it comes to rebuilding the nation. President Eisenhower saw this when he began the national infrastructure building campaign called the US Interstate System to supersede individual state plans to build smiler roads. Bringing our infrastructure into the 21st century requires a holistic approach best done with a centralized effort so each of the 16 categories, as laid out by the American Society of Civil Engineers (roads, bridges, airports…), can be viewed as one. Funding, as a result, would hopefully be spent where it ideally will have the greatest impact for the most citizens. Realistic? That depends on your level – or lack of – optimism.
Applauding the Senator’s efforts I signed up to support BRIDGE. Instantly I hit the wall, the one asking for my credit card number. The Senator, wanting in my wallet, was seeking a campaign donations for his re-election. Perhaps this why I am not a fan of Congress these days. Regardless, I’d rather crowd source the repairs of a broken bridge.
11:26:13 “Think about the cost of doing nothing,” said Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation, Barry Schoch as he held up a gallon of gasoline to the cameras at a media event under the rusting Liberty Bridge in Steel City, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “So for the cost of this, 5 years from now, you can see this bridge get repaired. You can see thousands like it across the state get repaired. You can see upgrades in our transit systems. Or, it could have been the cost of doing nothing. That cost would not go away. It would simply get higher if we did not deal with it now.”
At the invitation of Dan Hawbaker, owner of GOH Construction out of State College, PA, I shared the stage weeks ago with Secretary Schoch. We were speakers at the city’s Chamber of Commerce’s meeting. Schoch is impressively tall, quick minded, and I am guessing, is an individual who doesn’t suffer fools. Rare among today’s elected officers are his political acumen and professional engineering discipline. Too unusual is the trained engineer who’s a political leader. We’d be in better shape structurally if more engineers worked to become politicians. A hopeful outcome would be the building civic integrity by way of smart infrastructure investments that would reduce political instabilities. Engineers have their limitations. Linear thinking is not one of them.
“There is only one Pennsylvania. We all share its roads,” emphasized Governor Tom Corbett, above the dull roar of traffic at the press event beneath the Liberty Bridge. He’s Secretary Schoch’s bossman. The chief executive put the breaking of political gridlock over the passing of the the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s transportation bill into a sound byte, “This was a reasoned, common sense approach to how to deal with a terrible infrastructure problem that we’ve had.”
I would say still have. Time and money can solve almost any infrastructure problem but the work has yet to begin. The pundit’s are wondering if the Governor acted quickly enough. Regardless, Governor Corbett just announced his re-election bid.
Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2013/11/25/Corbett-signs-2-3-billion-transportation-funding-plan/stories/201311250172
Oversized trucks are rolling down roads on North Dakota’s country roads.
Engine running next to an oil rig in North Dakota
North Dakota: 11-14-13: Wild, western and windswept. Flat land, fracking and freight trucks. The population of North Dakota is rising. Life is good if you believe the happiness index that puts its citizenry amongst the highest in the nation along with California, Colorado and Massachusetts. Boston, Massachusetts, the small Northeastern city – big town, I hail from is as populated as the giant, square, Western state. North Dakota’s population: 699,628 (2012). Boston’s population: 636,479. North Dakota’s area: 70,700 square miles. Boston’s area: 49 square miles.
Energy management is this Dire States great hope – biggest challenge. Forever underpopulated, the state struggles to handle the trucking as oversized, over weight trucks hauling: sand, water, oil, pipes, chemicals and equipment. The big rigs barrel down back roads that are the state’s most main highways. Mrs. Martin’s hood latch was tested each time an oncoming 40 ton truck pushed 80 miles an hour headwinds. The thrusts of upward air into the engine compartment popped the hood from its resting position with a loud bang. ”At a roadside restaurant in Wyoming, an elderly couple from Washburn, North Dakota talked freely about their state’s infrastructure challenges and energy boom. “You wouldn’t believe all the death on the roads,” chanted the presumed wife of the happily heavy-set man. “People are getting killed from all the trucks on the roads.” Her man agreed saying, “If they’d just build that pipeline there’d be 8,000 less trucks on the roads.” Referring to the controversial Keystone Pipeline he lamented, “Down in Gascoin [North Dakota] they have big sections of that thing just waiting to be built.” Regardless of their opinions, they were armed with statistics they believed true.
Infrastructure in North Dakota might mean less death and even more happiness. Divided highways and pipelines could simultaneously reduce truck traffic and head-on collisions. Small pipelines servicing oil platforms conserve natural resources currently wasted. Death lurks when giant tractors and trailers overtake lesser vehicles. North Dakota is the new Texas. The 2 states are the largest oil drilling states. Instead of flaring, the act of burning off natural gas to get to the oil, small pipelines running to-and-from oil drilling platforms could be – and sometimes are – capturing natural gases.
Flaring between Minot and Williston, North Dakota. I could feel the heat from the flame. Power platforms are unfenced – unguarded. Per here (video in IMG 1738) circled the flames.
Mrs. Martin’s Spa Appointment: Fort Collins, CO: 11-22-14: Bill & Jane Lentz are Mrs. Martin’s host for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Bill is drying her out in his Hudson filled barn (a museum of over a dozen gorgeous Hudsons) after I gave her the first bath she’s had in over half a century. The washing, just before I departed home to Boston for Thanksgiving, left her woolen seats damp. Now, in full spa treatment form, Bill is drying them out with a floor fan. Jane plans to bomb Mrs. Martin’s interior. It was attacked by moths and mice. Adding to her beauty challenges, the upstate New York roads of her yesteryear were mud, dirt and dust filled. Now her upholstery is laden with barn dust and caked with red clay from the old byways. All this beautifying so she’s ready for the Denver Dire States event on December 3, 2013.
Bill Lentz, PhD, is our host in Colorado. He was raised the son of a farmer. When it came to infrastructure on the farm “fixing it” themselves was the only choice. Now he takes that talent and applies it to his love of a barn full of Hudsons – including Mrs. Martin.
Mrs. Martin is spending Thanksgiving with family in Colorado. Long lost but recently found she is resting in a warm barn with more than a dozen older and younger members of her Hudson family as snow and 16 degree winds blow. She’s finding herself after so many years of isolation thanks to her hosts Bill & Jane Lentz of the Hudson Club in Fort Collins. Bill & Jane made me feel like family too.
On a serious note, I explored the damage to a river town’s infrastructure when a 500 year flood deluged Lyons, Colorado. More on that soon…
Dekalb, IL: 11:06:13: A 3700 percent return on investment for replacing this bridge makes Google stock look like a low yield investment. Yet, that’s what experts and academics calculated the return on investment would be on each dollar invested in pulling this broken bridge out of the creek that it’s been sitting in since it collapsed about 5 years ago. That’s $37 for each $1 invested in resurrection. Returning it to the farmers and community folk who are forced to drive an hour out of their way every time they’re not able to cross it should’ve been the immediate course. Imagine being in an auto accident in 2008 and still not having your car repaired or replaced today.
While visiting the structure I photographed this school bus drive up to the collapsed bridge, drop a child off at the farm house and then turn around and head back to where it came. Why has this bridge been left in a heap in these soybean fields? It’s a public structure that served a public purpose since it was built in 1976 yet it remains to be rebuilt. I was informed that litigation is holding up its rebuilding. If so why not settle on who owes whom what later? Punishing those who paid for the bridge is cruel. These people are being deprived of the structure they came to count on – and paid for. Each bushel of soybeans in this area now costs each farmer an additional 5 cents because of the nearly 17 mile detour every truck carrying their goods to market must endure. The supply chain remains broken. That’s a burden on any farmer, large or small. And the supply chain between Dekalb, Illinois and the Peoples of Republic of China, Brazil or any other country waiting for this nutritious bean is that much further from these farmers.
ISA director Paul Rasmussen and I visit the Keslinger Road Bridge in Afton Township, DeKalb County. The bridge collapsed in August 2008 after a pick-up truck drove across it. Paul told me how the driver felt it shake as he passed over it. He stopped once he cleared the structure, then turned around and saw the bridge built in 1976 collapse. Now, farmers have a 16.7 mile detour. The fixing of the bridge has been tied up in court.
Madison Wisconsin: 11:04:13: The newly constructed, super-large, Engineering Hall at the University of Wisconsin was a standing-room-only crowd for the Dire States talk. This thanks largely to the intense crowd sourcing efforts of Professor David A. Noyce, Ph.D., P.E. The academic is renown moving traffic with intelligent systems. I didn’t know that besides trucks, buses and autos his traffic directing included: powerful appointed officials, multi media sources, curious students. My friend, Professor Mark Meyers, knew this however, when he introduced us late this summer when the idea of a University of Wisconsin at Madison talk was first discussed. “Mrs. Martin,” he assured me after our initial meeting, “will be parked here” as he pointed to a busy sidewalk in front of Engineering Hall. This became truth the moment we pulled onto campus. Science Writer Scott Gordon, who doubles as a music critic,backed us into our parking spot before introducing himself. Scott successfully scheduled a Dire States appearance on Wisconsin Public Radio’s At Issue with Larry Meiller. Professor Noyce deftly worked with Case Construction Equipment out of Racine, Wisconsin, my partners on the Dire States tour, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Governor Scott Walker’s Secretary of Transportation Mark Gottlieb, the secretary’s staff, and Professor Noyce’s esteemed colleagues on the university’s faculty. Audio visual support, simulcasting online, and most importantly people in the seats – thank you professor – thank you all.
The Roads That Built America: The incredible story ot the U.S. lnterstate System. The story behind the building of the largest engineering-construction project in the history of the world: The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate & Defense Hlghways.
Paving the Way: Asphalt in America. We are an asphalt nation. The detinitive book on roads in America – where more than 90% are paved with asphalt. The journey begins in Rome. takes you down Route 66. along the New Iersey Turnpike and ends with the Big Road, the U.S. Interstate System.
The Big Dig: The largest urban construction project in the history of the modern world. A messy complexity. The most comprehensive book on the nation’s largest project. Highly illustrated, simply put, the author’s tirst book was a number one best seller.
he Big Dig at Night: The Big Dig’s most dangerous work was done at night. Remarkable are these images of America’s largest project – at night.
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There’s no question about your being the best speaker of the year! We all found you presentation to be riveting. You held our attention exceptionally well. Your strong voice without amplification worked out beautifully.
- Malcolm Knapp
VP General Electric
Feedback was great. You hit a home run – you hit it out of the ball park!
- Gary W. McManis
Principal, Keppler Speakers
The feedback was fantastic. You were a hit!
- Kevin F. Smith
Senior Vice President CVS Pharmacy
