East Coast Earthquake? You Bet!
What seemed unimaginable to many at the time took just 18 years. With a 5.9-magnitude earthquake striking the East Coast today, August 23, 2011, want to quickly share a story I wrote while covering Burlington County only a couple of months after I joined the South Jersey bureau of The Philadelphia Inquirer. A story written two months earlier looked into the issue in depth.
BRIDGE PANEL APPROVES A QUAKE STUDY – November 10, 1993
Engineers Will Determine How the Tacony-Palmyra Can Be Made More Resistant to Such a Disaster
By HERBERT LOWE
Inquirer Staff Writer
A divided Burlington County Bridge Commission yesterday approved the payment of $450,000 to a consultant to study how the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge could be made more earthquake-proof.
The three-member commission also unanimously decided to keep its police force, although at a reduced size. It did so in part because of a Burlington County Prosecutor's Office report that said hiring another law enforcement agency to protect the commission's bridges and buildings would be more expensive.
Two major earthquakes, strong enough to knock chimneys off rooftops, have rocked New Jersey since the Civil War, seismic experts say. But Commissioner Frank A. Troso, who cast the lone vote against the study, is willing to take his chances.
"I just don't see any earthquake coming in the near future," Troso said. ''I just hope that I'm right. But $2 million is a lot of money to spend on speculation. "
J. Garfield DeMarco and John F. Heimmer – whom the commission yesterday voted to have serve another year as chairman and vice chairman, respectively – said the study was needed to help them decide whether to spend $1.5 million more to actually protect the Tacony-Palmyra from a quake.
The commission has already put aside the $1.9 million to do the retrofit, which essentially entails driving nails through a bridge's feet to increase its chance of staying put if shaken.
If the commission does decide to retrofit the bridge, it would do so during a three-year, $20 million renovation of the Tacony-Palmyra, slated to start by next summer. The bridge opened in 1929.
Seismic experts and transportation officials nationwide say thousands of older bridges could collapse during an earthquake. Designs for new bridges built with state or federal funds must meet upgraded earthquake-proof standards. Older public bridges normally get retrofitted during overhauls.
Because the commission is a private bridge owner, transportation officials can only recommend that it retrofit the Tacony-Palmyra.
Troso contended the commission simply cannot afford to follow the recommendation. He said he was satisfied the board was properly insured in case of an quake.
But Heimmer said once the New York-based Steinman engineering firm does a computer analysis and produces a computerized model of the Tacony-Palmyra, the commission will have the reports for subsequent repairs of the bridge.
Meanwhile, the commission gave its police force a strong vote of confidence, saying the department has become more efficient and useful over the last two years. It also cited the department's success in talking down all but one of the several people who threatened to jump from its bridges this year.
The commission's confidence in the department was shaken two years ago after $30,000 was found missing from toll receipts. The county prosecutor's office investigated, and several toll collectors and supervisors were implicated in the theft, commission spokesman Bob Stears said.
A year ago, the commission asked the prosecutor's office to review whether the commission could save money by paying someone else to watch over the Tacony-Palmyra and Burlington-Bristol Bridges.
The prosecutor's office, according to its report, found that it would be more expensive to hire either the New Jersey State Police ($2.3 million per year); the Burlington County Sheriff's Department ($1.3 million); or a combination of the Burlington City and Palmyra police departments (at least $1.2 million).
The report said the commission could operate its own force for about $1.2 million a year, if as many as 10 full-time and all part-time positions were let go. George Nyikita, the commission's director of bridge operations, said many of the report's recommendations match the board's stated goals.
Stears said the commission expects to spend $1.1 million for police in fiscal year 1994, down $200,000 from the previous year.
The commission and its staff credited Police Capt. William M. King for much of the department's recent success, and rewarded him yesterday with a new title: chief of police.
King, 60, took over the department when Robert J. Bracken retired as chief in February. King, who joined the force 33 years ago, will see his salary increased from $55,000 to $60,000.
His stint as chief will be short, however. The board also approved King's request for early retirement, effective in January 1995.
In other business, the commission ratified two three-year union contracts.
About 80 full- and part-time toll and maintenance employees will get 5 percent raises the first year, with 4 percent and 3 percent increases the second and third year, respectively, Nyikita said.
The 22 police employees will get 3 percent raises the first and second years, with 4 percent raises the third year, he said.
He said the average salary for all full-time employees in both groups is $35,000.
BRIDGE PANEL APPROVES A QUAKE STUDY – November 10, 1993
Engineers Will Determine How the Tacony-Palmyra Can Be Made More Resistant to Such a Disaster
By HERBERT LOWE
Inquirer Staff Writer
A divided Burlington County Bridge Commission yesterday approved the payment of $450,000 to a consultant to study how the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge could be made more earthquake-proof.
The three-member commission also unanimously decided to keep its police force, although at a reduced size. It did so in part because of a Burlington County Prosecutor's Office report that said hiring another law enforcement agency to protect the commission's bridges and buildings would be more expensive.
Two major earthquakes, strong enough to knock chimneys off rooftops, have rocked New Jersey since the Civil War, seismic experts say. But Commissioner Frank A. Troso, who cast the lone vote against the study, is willing to take his chances.
"I just don't see any earthquake coming in the near future," Troso said. ''I just hope that I'm right. But $2 million is a lot of money to spend on speculation. "
J. Garfield DeMarco and John F. Heimmer – whom the commission yesterday voted to have serve another year as chairman and vice chairman, respectively – said the study was needed to help them decide whether to spend $1.5 million more to actually protect the Tacony-Palmyra from a quake.
The commission has already put aside the $1.9 million to do the retrofit, which essentially entails driving nails through a bridge's feet to increase its chance of staying put if shaken.
If the commission does decide to retrofit the bridge, it would do so during a three-year, $20 million renovation of the Tacony-Palmyra, slated to start by next summer. The bridge opened in 1929.
Seismic experts and transportation officials nationwide say thousands of older bridges could collapse during an earthquake. Designs for new bridges built with state or federal funds must meet upgraded earthquake-proof standards. Older public bridges normally get retrofitted during overhauls.
Because the commission is a private bridge owner, transportation officials can only recommend that it retrofit the Tacony-Palmyra.
Troso contended the commission simply cannot afford to follow the recommendation. He said he was satisfied the board was properly insured in case of an quake.
But Heimmer said once the New York-based Steinman engineering firm does a computer analysis and produces a computerized model of the Tacony-Palmyra, the commission will have the reports for subsequent repairs of the bridge.
Meanwhile, the commission gave its police force a strong vote of confidence, saying the department has become more efficient and useful over the last two years. It also cited the department's success in talking down all but one of the several people who threatened to jump from its bridges this year.
The commission's confidence in the department was shaken two years ago after $30,000 was found missing from toll receipts. The county prosecutor's office investigated, and several toll collectors and supervisors were implicated in the theft, commission spokesman Bob Stears said.
A year ago, the commission asked the prosecutor's office to review whether the commission could save money by paying someone else to watch over the Tacony-Palmyra and Burlington-Bristol Bridges.
The prosecutor's office, according to its report, found that it would be more expensive to hire either the New Jersey State Police ($2.3 million per year); the Burlington County Sheriff's Department ($1.3 million); or a combination of the Burlington City and Palmyra police departments (at least $1.2 million).
The report said the commission could operate its own force for about $1.2 million a year, if as many as 10 full-time and all part-time positions were let go. George Nyikita, the commission's director of bridge operations, said many of the report's recommendations match the board's stated goals.
Stears said the commission expects to spend $1.1 million for police in fiscal year 1994, down $200,000 from the previous year.
The commission and its staff credited Police Capt. William M. King for much of the department's recent success, and rewarded him yesterday with a new title: chief of police.
King, 60, took over the department when Robert J. Bracken retired as chief in February. King, who joined the force 33 years ago, will see his salary increased from $55,000 to $60,000.
His stint as chief will be short, however. The board also approved King's request for early retirement, effective in January 1995.
In other business, the commission ratified two three-year union contracts.
About 80 full- and part-time toll and maintenance employees will get 5 percent raises the first year, with 4 percent and 3 percent increases the second and third year, respectively, Nyikita said.
The 22 police employees will get 3 percent raises the first and second years, with 4 percent raises the third year, he said.
He said the average salary for all full-time employees in both groups is $35,000.
