Dumber Than I Thought, And Maybe More Expensive.
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- December
- 24
In a recent column, I opined about the disgraceful amount of money Westchester County spent to buy thousands of yards of orange plastic netting that are used to block the entrances to the historic Bronx River Parkway whenever it floods. During hard rains, the netting is unspooled from little storage stations that stand at permanent sentry by the side of the road.
I wrote that the reported amount of $765,000 for the barriers was a waste of taxpayers’ money when simple wooden police barriers can do the trick.
Well, I’ve learned two things since that column appeared. First, it seems that the barriers cost more than The Journal News was told. According to minutes from the Sept. 7, 2008 from the county Board of Legislators, the committee on budget & approporitions actually submitted a $2.65 million bond issue for the barriers. The board passed it 13-4.
The second thing to add is that the barriers were not only installed at the entrances, which at least makes a modicum of sense, but they also put them at the exits!
That’s even more of an egregious waste of money. This beyond the realm of ordinary stupidity.
If the idea is to keep motorists off the parkway by blocking the entry ways, why on earth would you need to prevent people from getting off?
So here’s the scenario: You’re going down the BRP and it’s raining hard. Ominous puddles are forming on the road, and you’‘re thinking you better get off. You get to an exit and find out to your horror that the county has set up the net blocking you from safety.
You put your car in reverse, back down to the parkway and continue on your way until you hit a wall of water. Maybe you won’t drown, but your car will be ruined.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 at 1:56 pm by Phil Reisman.
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Phil Reisman is a veteran journalist and native of Westchester County. He began his career in 1977 as the head copy boy of a startup New York City newspaper that quickly went belly up. Reisman was not to blame for the newspaper's failure, or so he claims.
Just when one thinks things couldn’t get more bizarre up there… things get MORE bizarre. Truly beyond belief.
Every time I exit the Bronx River Parkway at Desmond Avenue and look at the barrier at the top of the exit I feel like gagging. What in the world is the point, do the powers that be really believe a person would enter a flooded parkway by driving the wrong way down an exit and make a U turn at the bottom so they could become submerged. I would also like to know if the barriers are locked into place once opened. Or can anyone just unhook them and drive by anyway. Wasn’t that the reason they did away with the wooden barriers in the first place.