Speaking of taxpayer dollars, the bridge is finally down!! The old train tressle over Garland Road has been eating semis ever since they repaved the road underneath with so much asphalt that the height of the bridge went from 13 + feet to 12 feet 10 inches. Of course, no signage was applied to let truckers who use this major route know that the bridge was now shorter than the average semi is tall, and trucks were getting peeled open like sardine cans at a rate of at least 3 a week, sometimes even a couple each day. Meanwhile, the great City of Dallas and the local transit authority got in a game of passive-aggressive to see who would ante up the $ to tear the bridge down. They finally put up a little sign on the bridge that said "12'10"", but you could only see it when you are bearing down on it, and of course semis continued to be eaten. I don't know how much it costs to put up one of those portable signs by the highway that would have warned the truckers not to use that route before they committed, but it doesn't matter - both "leadership teams" were hellbent on not being responsible. The local alternative newspaper did a story on it, followed by the city newspaper, followed by the local TV stations, and I guess somebody finally figured out a way to light a fire under the politicos, and somewhere one of these agencies found the political will to take action. Last night, they closed the road at 8 pm, and by 5 am the bridge was down!!!
Probably cost them less than $10,000. Now they only owe an apology to all the truckers whose semi's they ruined - surely over $1 million in damage - talk about political leadership!!!