IronTiger

Well, I could see one alternative is building it OVER the existing five stack, making it a six-stack, but I have no idea if the engineering is okay for that, or swing it over the Hempstead Tollway ROW (if it ever gets built, the infrastructure could be recycled). So it would go off at around Senate (going over where Carpet Texas used to be, and swing back in near Little York P&R). Perimeter Park Drive's crossing would be closed, but it could be closed either way.

The monorail (or people mover) was Lyle Langley's Kathryn Whitmire's pet project voted not on the people but by her own METRO board. The people voted in a, and here's a quote from a 1/3/1988 Chron article, a "non-binding referendum" for a long-term METRO plan. I realize Lanier's anti-rail push was controversial, but don't distort facts.

I hate to tell you this, but you could either try looking in Dallas, or try somewhere in Bryan, TX, which has some nightlife away from the student quarter.

Wasn't one of the master plan goals was to rebuild the five stack anyway? Even so, they have a lot of ROW, three fast foods and two car repair places met their end for this project.

The Speedy Stop at 6 and 290 (actually FM 1960) is still Speedy Stop. On a related note, were the Valero "Super K" stores ever 7 Elevens?

Ok, not actually pulling my hair out, but still finding the answer elusive.

Page updated again, now bigger and better than ever. More photos. More information. Check it out! link

I would say that mergers tend to happen in relatively good economic times, and because the company is still extant and stronger than ever, laid off employees get severance benefits. Meanwhile, mergers may keep some divisions afloat too--we know for instance Randalls has gotten a stay of execution due to the merger, and all those jobs associated have been saved.

I'm back at work, with substantial updates under way. Updating code to make it look nicer, chunks rewritten, new paragraphs added. The item of interest this time around is Exclusive Furniture at 17390 Northwest Freeway at Jones Road. I'm pulling my hair out because it had to be a supermarket at one time but I can't figure out what it was. Purpledevil is AWOL, it seems, I sent him a neat discovery I made of old 1990s-era restaurants but haven't heard back. I'm sure he'd have the answer...

Nah, just certain topics.

'Sup. What do you want to talk about? We have a lot of threads on buildings going up, and some historical building threads. Topics that will likely get you banned/frowned upon include Dallas vs. Houston threads or some sort of transportation thread (freeways vs. trains). Just try not to look like an idiot, and you'll do fine. Otherwise you'll be a permanent laughingstock unless you want to spend years trying to rebuild your reputation.

Sounds like the latter. A good conspiracy theory requires some theories, like the "magic bullet" or the similarities of WTC 7's collapse with a controlled demolition. Not saying these are true, but they at least add intrigue. What it sounds like you have is "people didn't like him". There isn't such a thing as a universally loved politician, so Trevino certainly isn't unique in that aspect.

Do you have any proof of this, even inconsistencies, or are you just in denial?

Good advice, you should listen to it sometime. Point is, there's significant evidence that Trevino is guilty, and you think he's being set up just because there happens to be white people on a jury.

In that case, it would've been previously compromised by the earthquake, which they did emergency repairs on back in 1989-90 and why they were building the replacement span to begin with.

The idea that politicians actually do illegal things hasn't occurred to you? Or does that only apply to Republicans?

I don't remember Dolcefino in reading about the mayor run. I read a bunch of articles during that era for the ill-fated monorail/people mover plan Whitmire wanted (and no, the people didn't vote on that plan specifically), and while Turner and Lanier beat Whitmire handily, Turner still lost.

I have indeed seen a picture (Houston Freeways) of the "Hazardous" Street Bridge with the chunks missing. For a major highway, that is bad. Other bridges have low clearances as well--Syracuse, NY has a railroad bridge that goes at 11 ft. 9 in. (officially, it's signed as 10 ft. 9 in.), and a Megabus that missed an exit ended up having the top deck sliced off, with the state installing a warning system to keep taller vehicles off. But as for replacing bridges for safety reasons, that tends to be irrelevant. The old "steel truss" bridges in Texas that have been slowly replaced over the years (a few remain as pedestrian bridges, or at least in one case, a turnaround lane) have had more to do with lane width and traffic capacity than actual safety reasons. I'm not saying bridges don't need to be replaced--the Oscar Colquitt (Yale) Bridge was opened around 80 years ago (I've heard both 1931 and 1936), and these older bridges were made before reinforced concrete and other modern building materials. It really does depend on the material--old stone bridges in Europe have been around for centuries. However, since the Sidney Sherman Bridge isn't an octogenarian (yes, I personified the bridge there), has some critical design flaw, or even rated "structurally deficient", it should be fine for at least the next 3 decades. Again, of course, that's assuming there's not going to be something big and heavy smashing into it enough to seriously compromise it or anything.

Again, age isn't a huge factor in bridge failures. Here's some further adventures in American bridge failures courtesy of Wikipedia (2000 to present): - Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee partially collapsed in 2000 (the bridge only about 23 years old, no casualties), engineers found to be improperly designed welds that were only made worse by extreme cold. - Queen Isabella Causeway was damaged in September 2001 with four loaded barges hitting it, and drivers not noticing the missing part (it was the highest part of the causeway) until it was too late. At the time, the bridge was 27 years old, and the road was repaired and reopened. - Interstate 40 Bridge Disaster in Oklahoma--towboat hit it in 2002 (couldn't find when the bridge was built) - In 2004 in Connecticut, a car struck a tanker that was carrying oil, resulting fire melted superstructure and caused bridge collapse (because rebar won't sustain extreme heating without compromise--that's why they had to raze the Axis garage) - An overpass in Michigan collapsed in 2009 because of another tanker... - The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge partially collapsed in 2009 and was the result of a botched 70-hour emergency repair from a component that was already failing (in a NEW bridge, natch) - Last year, a bridge in Washington state, that was admittedly open in 1955, had been damaged by a too-tall vehicle, was not "structurally deficient" but rather "functionally obsolete". A newer type of bridge would've been able to sustain a hit like that. - Another disaster in May 2013 in Scott City, MO happened when trains t-boned each other and knocked out structural components of the bridge. There were other bridge failures too in other countries I'm not mentioning, but keep in mind that in developing countries, bridges are built cheaply, and aren't well-engineered. The only American disaster I didn't cover was the 2007 Minnesota bridge collapse, but need I remind you that not only the numerous design/construction flaws were in the bridge but it was originally striped with two lanes in each direction with two shoulders, and those shoulders became full lanes later, meaning that it was carrying twice as many cars as it was originally designed to. Why, then, of all the bridges rated "structurally deficient", why aren't we seeing more spontaneous bridge collapsing? That's because "structurally deficient" does not mean "collapse imminent", it means that it's no longer has the same safety ratings (of what it can hold, etc.) of its original design. It's been more than 7 years since a major collapse like that, so until bridges start collapsing spontaneously on a regular basis, it can be a "freak accident". Now, the Sidney Sherman East Loop Ship Channel Bridge--assuming there's no major structural flaws to begin with, the only way I can foresee a major disaster anytime soon is if something big and heavy crashes into it, but previous disasters have shown us that newer structures will not sustain "big and heavy crashes" either.

I thought I remember reading or hearing that the time alternative fuel research is done is during when times oil companies are doing well, and the economy's good. It does make sense: if oil companies can afford R&D they will hire them (you don't want to see oil companies contract hiring), and oil companies want to keep making money in energy. Meanwhile, smaller companies could also try to develop alternative fuels, spurred on by a good economy. The role for government in this case would be to not to enact effectively anti-oil rules and dampen the economy (thus throwing a spanner in the works for alternative fuels too), but to encourage a great economy and everything should fall into place. * also a friendly reminder that most of alt. energy research is done by Big Oil

Age isn't really a factor in structural failures, and it's more of an engineering failures. Remember, the famous Tacoma Narrows bridge was only 4 months old before it fell into the water taking Tubby the three-legged Cocker Spaniel with it. The I-35W Mississippi River Bridge is the one that really started discussion on bridges, but although it just shy of 40 years old, it had several flaws in retrospect that contributed to its collapse: - A lack of redundancy in the trusses so any single structural failure would cause the entire bridge to collapse - It was planned to be reinforced with more steel but canceled because it would weaken the bridge. - Corrosion had taken a heavy toll on the bearings of the bridge. This happens with water bridges as opposed to road bridges. - The collapse happened when heavy construction equipment was on the bridge for resurfacing. - 16 of the gusset plates were too thin, underdesigned, and gave way, taking out the rivets of the bridge. - There's a theory that spraying potassium acetate to prevent icing was corroding structural supports. tl;dr Bridges don't tend to collapse unless poorly-engineering components give way, and age tends to be less of an issue.

Unfortunately, you've made the same fallacy that a lot of others do and taken "Houston" to mean "Inner Loop Houston". Unless you want to start gentrifying 3rd Ward or 5th Ward, right now, Inner Loop Houston isn't really affordable. In the past, the Heights and Montrose were affordable, and unless you want to take part in the slowly but surely dwindling number of 1960s/1970s/1980s garden-style apartment complexes, the Inner Loop isn't really affordable unless you had that sort of cash. I'm sure there's plenty of Inner Belt homes that are both affordable and in decent neighborhoods.

Well, it's at the intersection of two major highways, but then again, "access issues" were a leading contributor in sealing the fate of Town & Country Mall, which CityCentre replaced.

Rest in peace, Bob. In reading his legacy, he was a great mayor for a great city.

It's gone. The ground rumbled as the big concrete things fell straight to the ground.