Don't let the name fool you: despite what you might think, the History
Channel is now an enemy of historic bridges as it begins to wage war against
them.
Timothy Galarnyk who is described as "an independent construction
investigator in St. Paul" and who runs a
risk management company will become the host of a new History Channel series
called "Inspector America" which apparently was originally going to be called
"America's Crumbling Infrastructure." The show begins at 10:00 PM April 17th.
Read about it here. You can
read
Galarnyk's bio here. From the bio, it sounds like he is a respectful guy
with a lot of experience and someone who knows what he is talking about. However
his actions in visiting and "inspecting" the historic
Stillwater Lift
Bridge for one of the upcoming television episodes suggests he is either
completely incompetent or is grossly distorting the facts for the sake of
television drama and theatre.
Consider the National Bridge Inventory
inspection ratings for the Stillwater Lift Bridge, gathered by NBIS Certified
bridge inspectors who are under much greater scrutiny working in the post I-35W
world, within the very state in which the I-35W collapse occurred. Do you think
these certified inspectors would do anything other than rate this fracture
critical truss bridge as worse than it really is? Here are the official 2009
ratings:
Deck condition rating: Very Good (8 out of 9)
Superstructure
condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating:
Fair (5 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating:
32.8 (out of 100)
These ratings are not that bad. The important
things to look at when assessing the structural integrity of the bridge is the
condition ratings. The sufficiency rating is not useful in determining structure
integrity, because the rating takes into account many other factors that have
nothing to do with the physical condition of the bridge such as whether the
bridge has enough lanes for the traffic volume, etc. The bridge condition
ratings suggest the substructure needs rehabilitation and the superstructure
could receive repairs or light rehabilitation. So what sort of coverage will
this bridge get on the History Channel? According to a local news article the
program "…will warn that the Stillwater Lift Bridge could collapse any time
because of crumbling piers and corroding steel plates."
Timothy Galarnyk
and Stillwater mayor Ken Harycki (who turns out to be quite radical and makes
the problem worse) to "inspect" the bridge. "Inspect" is in quotes because
normal NBIS inspectors do not consider walking under a bridge on the ice of a
frozen river to be the traditional (or safe) way to inspect a fracture critical
truss bridge. During this "inspection" Galarnyk concluded that the bridge is so
dangerous that motorists should stay off the bridge and the bridge "shouldn't be
open" He claims "he pushed his arm inside a pier" and could "reach through a
corroded steel plate" He said the bridge is "is as bad as any he's seen in 30
years."
A week prior to this, certified NBIS inspectors from MnDOT
inspected the bridge and found no issues that warranted bridge closure. Now,
there is nothing wrong with being suspicious of a DOT inspection, but the idea
that there would really be such broad disagreement as to the condition of a
bridge is absurd. MnDOT conducts annual inspections of the bridge, and reviewing
prior inspections actually
reveals that the bridge has been in worse shape in previous years than it is
today. Past repairs have resulted in this improvement. It seems fairly obvious
that Galarnyk is reporting the bridge as being in worse condition than it really
is. This is not to say that Galarnyk is incompetent or doesn't know how to
inspect a bridge. It could be that the History Channel wants him to grossly
exaggerate and distort the facts, making the bridge appear worse than it is, for
the sake of improving ratings by making the show more exciting or suspenseful.
Either way, the reality is that scaring the living daylights out of people is
not beneficial to anybody, nor is condemning a bridge that has preservation and
rehabilitation potential.
It all goes downhill from here. The television
show hasn't even aired yet. After that "inspection" the mayor panicked. In an
epic freakout, he tried (and failed) to get City Council to rename the bridge
"Federal Government Lift Bridge" so that the city would not be blamed if the
bridge collapsed. He also tried (and failed) to get City Council to add posted
signage that reads "This unsafe crossing brought to you by your federal
government at work. Cross at your own risk." He also said for good measure he
wanted to add skulls and crossbones. All of this was reported in local news
articles. The local newspapers showed a complete ignorance of NBI bridge
ratings. They made a point of noting that the sufficiency rating of Stillwater
Bridge is lower than the collapsed I-35W bridge as if that somehow means the
Stillwater Bridge is in greater danger of collapse even though that has nothing
to do with sufficiency rating.
Here are the two most prominent articles:
http://www.startribune.com/local/east/116515288.html
http://integritythatworks.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/stillwater-lift-bridge-dangerous-flaws/
Although unrelated to this story, its also worth noting that this bridge
is another victim of one of the dumbest laws in the world, the
National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The
plan has been to bypass this bridge with a new bridge and to preserve the
historic bridge for pedestrian use. Sounds like a great solution! But Scenic
Rivers Act limits the number of bridge crossings a river can have. No exception
is made for situations where a crossing is being added as part of a preservation
project to bypass a historic bridge. Even though the official stated goals for
the Scenic River Act is to protect and historic and cultural values of a
designated river, the law will not allow a bypass because of the bridge crossing
limit. There
have been efforts to pass legislation to create an exemption for this law for
the Stillwater Bridge. The reality is however that the law itself needs to be
amended so that exception to this rule is automatic whenever any historic
bridge's preservation hangs in the balance.
Based on what news there has been about Galarnyk and this show so far, this
show appears to be nothing less than an unwarranted attack on historic bridges
by a television channel supposedly devoted to history. An audience composed of
people who have an appreciation for history will be subjected to scare tactics
that leave them believing that historic bridges are dangerous, on the verge of
collapse, and beyond repair and therefore must be demolished and replaced when
in most cases nothing could be further from the truth. It will drive away the
very people who might otherwise offer support for the preservation of historic
bridges.
It really is most unfortunate that the History Channel has
chosen to portray our nation's historic bridges as dangerous crossings that
should be demolished and replaced by using exaggeration and scare tactics,
presumable to raise show ratings. I suspect the original idea for this series
was perhaps something more beneficial to the greater good, which may have been
to raise awareness of how deferred maintenance and lack infrastructure funds are
resulting in deterioration. This show might actually be interesting and
beneficial if it instead were to focus on how maintenance and repair of existing
infrastructure is the most cost-effective way in which to bring America's
infrastructure back into good condition, while also preserving the history that
this television channel is supposed to cherish.
