If they are planning a new lift span bridge hardly any higher than, and with no curve improvements compared to the old bridge, then they have achieved *exactly* nothing.
Forget the I-95 bypass; they should just build a curved, fixed span, connecting the two sharp curves at either end of the bridge into a single smooth curve.
I think a much gentler curve along the lines of 0°45' should be possble with basically no property impacts whatsoever. Not exactly sure what speed that would be good for with Amtrak spec equipment, but modern tilting trains should be able to do 150.
Assuming 2% grades (which is perfectly reasonable - perhaps even conservative - on an electrified line like this), the approaches for a 90' high span would start past the end of Rivers Ridge Road on the west, and fit neatly under the existing Shore Road underpass on the east. In other words, basically no alignment change and absolutely no elevation change next to anybody's million dollar mansion.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed ... C8iSezNjwV
This is an example of a process gone haywire.
Forget the I-95 bypass; they should just build a curved, fixed span, connecting the two sharp curves at either end of the bridge into a single smooth curve.
I think a much gentler curve along the lines of 0°45' should be possble with basically no property impacts whatsoever. Not exactly sure what speed that would be good for with Amtrak spec equipment, but modern tilting trains should be able to do 150.
Assuming 2% grades (which is perfectly reasonable - perhaps even conservative - on an electrified line like this), the approaches for a 90' high span would start past the end of Rivers Ridge Road on the west, and fit neatly under the existing Shore Road underpass on the east. In other words, basically no alignment change and absolutely no elevation change next to anybody's million dollar mansion.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed ... C8iSezNjwV
This is an example of a process gone haywire.
- Start out from the premise of infrastructure rather than service. NEC Future is an *infrastructure* vision, with plenty of opportunities to hand $billions to politically connected contractors, but far from complete as a real *service* vision that shows how its timetables connect people to destinations conveniently and effectively
- Given the concept of "Let's spend some money!!! Maybe we'll get some infrastructure for it. And then maybe if we're lucky, we can runs some trains." they first proposed a *project* in which one of the alternatives was a big long bypass along I-95 with some (pretty reasonable) impacts, but little ability to tie it to *service* improvements other than a promise that "It'll be faster"
- Run into resistance from very rich, highly connected NIMBYs over the frankly quite reasonable impacts
- NIMBYs run to congresspeople for help
- Congresspeople cave to parochial interests, pressure Amtrak to abandon the bypass
- Amtrak backs off, and instead proposes a set of less ambitious alternatives
- Let the freight operations tail wag the passenger service dog, and say that 1.5% or 2% grades are OFF THE TABLE - in spite of very limited freight operations, and the fact that freight trains can easily negotiate 2%, and do so already in many places - and in spite of the fact that the Northeast Corridor is one of the most densely populated linear corridors on earth.
- Arrive at a "preferred alternative" of *the* *most* *timid* project imaginable, for an insane budget of nearly half a billion (And that's before cost overruns have had a chance to blow it up)
