The bridge to tomorrow.

I just learned our commuter railroad will be participating in one of the 2 seasons we have here in Chicago. We have winter and we have construction season. Every year it seems when construction begins a nightmare soon follows--- going from point A to point B sometimes feels like you are participating in the entire alphabet.

Usually within a few months, maybe a year, the work is done; we all breath a sigh of relief and then the snow starts. The one way around this bottleneck has been, and continues to be, to take the train as your form of mass transportation. I just learned one of the trains I take, I take two each way, will experience track construction for 8 years! (This is hard to believe.) I said to the conductor, we might be living on the train with the delays we will be experiencing. He said, “Not me, I am retiring at the end of the year.” I told him we would write with updates from our life on the train.

Apparently they are having to replace bridges; if you saw them you would scratch your head and wonder, “How does this thing support the weight of a train?” They are in that bad of shape. I am sure all of the attorneys at Metra (our rail system) are saying, “You had better get this done before it’s too late.” I am not sure how many people ride the train line from the city to where I work and northward, but it has got to be 30,000 or more a day. One slip up and the worst could happen. I was travelling with my family to Minneapolis the day the bridge collapsed on I-35. We do not need, or want, a similar situation in the Chicago area. I am not sure based upon the economy if the money is there---but I assure you if something were to happen, Chicago's finest lawyers would be very busy.

I have never enjoyed walking under bridges--- I knew people who were in California when the bridges came crashing down during the World Series back in the 90s.They have never recovered from the fear they encountered. I know the likelihood is not good, but there is something really alarming to know they could. Sounds like a made for TV movie---oh, never mind that’s happened.

The photo above was taken in Little Rock, AR. This bridge showed it’s age and it was being worked on while I was there. I am not sure if it was ever completed since I rarely travel there, but seeing the amount of work that needed to be done, and the shape it was in, I would have to believe there was an alternative route. I would have taken that route!

Thanks for stopping by.