Saturday, July 16, 2011

"Carmageddon" Observations (Amended)*

THE CALAMITY THAT WASN'T (SO FAR)
Just a few comments on "Carmageddon", the anticipated cataclysmic closure of the 405 Freeway in West Los Angeles and the traffic snarls that were supposed to follow.

LIVE FEED IS FUN
Channel 11 has had a live streaming video camera set up all day and I've ducked in for a peek every once in awhile. You can view that feed HERE, (looks like Channel 11 took the camera down. When I checked at 3:30 Sunday it was only a blank screen. It was fun to watch while it lasted.) but it will require you to have Microsoft Silverlight software loaded. It might take a couple seconds to load... be patient.

LOOKS TO BE AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
This has been fascinating to watch. Right now, at around 2:20 p.m., they look to be finished with the demolition and are now beginning to load up the caravan of large trucks to haul away the debris. At this pace I won't be surprised if they finish well ahead of their 5:00 a.m. Monday deadline.

LIKE WATCHING "JURASSIC PARK"

These video images reminded me of watc
hing a scene from Jurassic Park. The huge mobile jackhammers stretched to the sky - about 60 feet - chipping away at the south side of the Mulholland Bridge, surgically removing the concrete and rebar was like a dental technician removing plaque from your teeth. At one time there were 6 of those enormous machines working, three below and three on top, gracefully reaching out and tap, tap, tapping away.

LOADING THE RUBBLE WITH BALLET-LIKE PRECISION

They are gone now and more "prehistoric machines" are now scooping the rubble into piles so front-loaders can pick it up and deposit it into the trucks. Somewhere in the background I can still hear the tapping going on, so I assume some of the larger chunks still require pulverization before loading.

*TIME LAPSE VIDEO
Check this out... it's a time lapse link showing the demolition. It's only 32 seconds, but a hoot to watch


Mulholland Bridge Demolition Time Lapse Video: MyFoxLA.com


WHAT ABOUT LITTLE CHUNKS OF RESIDUE?
I hope this project continues as it has been going. I do find myself wondering if there will be little chunks of debris dropping onto the traffic come Monday morning... OUCH!

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10 Comments:

Anonymous Rob Dimel said...

I flew over "carmageddon" yesterday morning. Total non-event. Much like Y2K was.

7/17/2011 09:20:00 PM  
Blogger The Pot Stirrer said...

Amazing bit of coordination! I'd jump onto the streaming video every once in awhile and watched that ballet taking place... very cool. One report said the contractor got a $400,000 bonus for the 18-hour early completion.

7/17/2011 10:09:00 PM  
Blogger Joe said...

Were Riggy and Menssy in on the phony Doomsday prophecies?

7/18/2011 07:33:00 AM  
Anonymous Mike 1 said...

Joe - I think they probably wanna hire that contractor for all those street repairs and pay him another big bonus!

7/18/2011 09:12:00 AM  
Anonymous West gets it wrong ... again! said...

Pot Stirrer gets it wrong, again, like he does when watching Council.

Contractor got $300,000 for finishing early. City saved $400,000 because they finished early, and did not have to pay everyone to stand around holding up a shovel.

Typical ... West got it wrong!

7/18/2011 09:53:00 AM  
Blogger Joe said...

Riggspeak:

Outsourcing good, G. West bad.

7/18/2011 11:05:00 AM  
Anonymous Mike 1 said...

'West gets it wrong'... in his defense, Geoff attributed it by saying 'One report said...' He didn't claim to be reporting anything.

Read much? Doh!

7/18/2011 12:34:00 PM  
Blogger The Pot Stirrer said...

Thanks, Mike 1, I knew I didn't have all the information, only a snippet from one news report. That wouldn't change that person's alleged mind, though. Thanks for coming to my defense... :-)

7/18/2011 12:37:00 PM  
Anonymous Other Mike said...

Mike 1: you can have just plain old "Mike" back. I wile henceforth use "other mike". You were here first! I'm a giver like that.

7/18/2011 11:24:00 PM  
Anonymous Mike 1 said...

Ahh... you're a good man, Mike...

7/19/2011 09:16:00 AM  

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