A Prognosis for the Murray Morgan Coming Soon?
It must be the cool fall air, because the little birds are everywhere. The word on the street is that our fair city will be receiving the DOT’s recommendations on the future of the Murray Morgan bridge soon… and it isn’t good news. From what we hear, public safety is the primary consideration driving the report and that the future of the bridge may include… Cars? No. Pedestrians? No. Emergency vehicles? Nope. So…
There should be more news coming out this afternoon. We hope it’s better than what we’ve heard so far. We’ll let you know.
UPDATE – 3:25 pm
The newly appointed Washington State Secretary of Transportation, Paula Hammond, came to the Tacoma City Council Study Session today to inform the council that we need to close the Murray Morgan Bridge.
In the words of the DOT, the bridge has extensive section lost where the bridge members are not as strong as they used to be. It’s effectively rusting apart. Several rivets collapsed with a hit from a hammer. The bottom truss is “fraction critical. If one member fails, the whole thing fails.
“We will not compromise safety. We have to close it.” – Hammond
The City Council quickly pounced on the visiting DOT officials. The state wanted to focus on how we move forward. The city wanted to remind the state that THEY are the ones that got us here. Baarsma stated that there is a belief that the state’s plan from the beginning was to remove the bridge and that this was simply the next step in their plan.
“I am profoundly disappointed… But thank you for coming.” – Julie Anderson
After several pointed questions, it was stated that there is no plan to renew emergency access to the tideflats. Hammond offered to look into it over the next two days. The question of public safety went back and forth. The bridge needs to close, but how do we get access to the port in an emergency?
There was a lot of passion in the room. Many folks aren’t prepared to give up on the bridge. Many more folks aren’t willing to let the state forget that they put us here. Things are going to move quickly now.
The bridge is closed now.
Previously on Exit133