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. Not sure what the Bridge Commission ultimately decided to do.
OBSOLETE BRIDGES HAVE OFFICIALS RUMBLING – September 19, 1993
Like Many Spans, the Tacony-Palmyra is Vulnerable to Quakes. Overseers are Urging a $2 Million Remedy
By HERBERT LOWE
Inquirer Staff Writer
J. Garfield DeMarco wants everyone to know that it is important to spend nearly $2 million to protect the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge from an earthquake. "We have to be prepared," the chairman of the Burlington County Bridge Commission cracked at this month's meeting, "in case me and John walk across the bridge together. "
DeMarco, a former county Republican chairman whose girth matches his broad influence, was talking about Commissioner John F. Heimmer, no small man himself. Heimmer and everyone else in the commission's Palmyra boardroom erupted in laughter. But the point was a serious one – to the commission, to other bridge officials up and down the Delaware, and certainly to seismic experts and state and federal transportation officials.
Although a quake rarely strikes this area, it could happen, experts say. To them, the $1.9 million that the commissioners have tentatively put aside to retrofit the Tacony-Palmyra would be money well spent. They say the project is basically a matter of driving nails through the bridge's feet to increase its chance of staying put if shaken.
Transportation officials nationwide say thousands of older bridges could collapse from a moderate earthquake. Designs for new bridges built with state or federal funds must meet updated earthquake -proofing standards. Older taxpayer-supported bridges get retrofitted during overhauls.
Because the Burlington County Bridge Commission is essentially a private bridge owner – its money comes from commuter tolls – neither the Federal Highway Administration nor the state Department of Transportation will order an earthquake retrofit for the Tacony-Palmyra. That leaves the commission, even though it's already put the $1.9 million aside, still wrestling over what to do.
"That really threw us. That $2 million pricetag was a bit staggering," said commission spokesman Robert Stears. "The bridge has stood since 1929 without any kind of earthquake affecting it. It's not as if earthquakes really happen very much in this region."
But what if the bridge had opened two years earlier? Two major quakes strong enough to knock chimneys off rooftops have rocked New Jersey since the Civil War: in 1871, along the Delaware River near Salem, and in 1927, at the Shore due east of Trenton, said Willis S. Jacobs, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.
What would happen to cars on a 60-year-old bridge that's not up to standard if Mother Nature struck that hard today?
"I can't say," Jacobs said. "But I think most of the construction at that time didn't take into account earthquake activity. "
Don't forget: There is plenty more traffic roaring in the 1990s than in the '20s. Think about rush hour on any bridge linking New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Who can forget what happened to the double-decker span linking Oakland and San Francisco when a major earthquake rocked California in 1989?
Not DeMarco. "Have you ever seen a bridge collapse in an earthquake ?" he asked at a bridge commission hearing Sept. 7. "It's a scary sight."
THE BELLS OF BOSTON
No one is saying the area should expect a damaging quake soon. Then again, no one is saying it shouldn't.
"There's no way to say, 'Oh, yeah, there's going to be a Magnitude 6 ( earthquake , as measured on the Richter scale) in the Philadelphia metropolitan area at such-and-such a time,' " said Donald Goralski, spokesman for the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research at the State University of New York at Buffalo. "The question is, do you want to be ready for it if it happens, or do you not want to be ready for it? "
The earth's tectonic plates don't have to shift near Philadelphia for it to suffer, seismologists warn. East Coast quakes can damage areas 10 times as large as those in the West, because East Coast rocks are older, denser and have fewer fault lines than western rocks. Seismologists know, for example, that in 1811 and 1812, a series of quakes centered in Missouri rang church bells a thousand miles away in Boston.
Still, it is difficult to get people, including elected officials, on the urbanized East Coast to take earthquakes seriously. A very minor earthquake in February that was centered between Mount Holly and Cherry Hill and lasted a few seconds measured a mere 2.5 on the Richter scale. It didn't even make front-page news.
'FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY'
Experts consider earthquakes the most potentially dangerous natural phenomenon, because they are the least expected - especially in the East. "For the eastern United States, the real danger is not a major earthquake , which is inevitable, but our false sense of security, which is not," then-Sen. Albert Gore said at a 1989 forum on the issue in Washington.
The Burlington County Bridge Commission began testing its sense of security about two years ago, when engineers drew up plans to re-deck the Tacony- Palmyra Bridge. The commission also operates the Burlington-Bristol Bridge and five smaller, toll-free bridges.
While researching what is now a three-year, $20 million project expected to start in 1994, the engineers found two surprises.
First, the Tacony-Palmyra's four lanes are too skinny: They should be 13 feet wide, not 8 feet, according to federal standards. The commission may reduce traffic to three lanes before the project is done, said spokesman Stears.
The next surprise was the obsolete earthquake standards. The commission wanted to heed the latest standards dictated by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The group's members ensure each year that standards are uniform nationwide.
Stears said the commission was still researching several questions, including a big one: What if the bridge is not retrofitted and an earthquake hits? Would the commission be liable?
What the commission cannot do is keep a sizable earthquake from damaging the span. "We always expect damage from an earthquake," said William E. Williams, structural engineer for the Pennsylvania division of the Federal Highway Administration. "What you're trying to do in simplest terms is to keep that bridge from coming off its foundations."
Picture the bridge as a man standing up, his feet as his foundation, holding a dozen expensive plates. If the floor moves, the man could lose his balance. Even if he didn't fall, the plates – like cars on a bridge – would probably shake, rattle and roll.
In a retrofit, workers strengthen the bridge by planting its pilings more firmly in the concrete foundation – for instance, by increasing the size and strength of the bolts that anchor the bridge. In other words, they put nails in the man's feet.
"What we're trying to do is tie you down to the floor so you move with the floor," Williams said.
But should the commission spend $1.9 million on an unlikely earthquake? "They should and, in fact, most of the bridge-owning authorities (in the United States) are working to retrofit their existing bridges as fast as they can," said David J. Hensing, deputy director of the highway officials' group.
The Delaware River Port Authority will do an earthquake retrofit on the Walt Whitman Bridge, which opened in 1957, as part of a multiyear, $100 million repair project starting next spring, said spokesman Joseph K. Diemer.
"It's just good business. These are major investments, and you have to protect your investments," Diemer said, referring to the Port Authority's other properties: the Benjamin Franklin, Commodore Barry and Betsy Ross Bridges.
The Benjamin Franklin Bridge, which opened in 1926, last underwent a rehabilitation between 1984 and 1987. The span was not retrofitted for earthquakes, because the new standards weren't in place, Diemer said.
But commuters shouldn't fear, he said. "The bridge is safe," Diemer said. ''To whatever degree you can say something is safe, that bridge is safe."
The Commodore Barry and Betsy Ross Bridges opened in the mid-1970s. They won't be retrofitted for earthquakes until major repairs are needed, Diemer said. As for the Tacony-Palmyra, the Burlington commission could decide as early as next month whether to spend the $1.9 million and do the retrofit.
"After that earthquake in Maple Shade, we need to be sure," DeMarco said at the bridge commission hearing.
Everyone in the boardroom laughed again.
OBSOLETE BRIDGES HAVE OFFICIALS RUMBLING – September 19, 1993
Like Many Spans, the Tacony-Palmyra is Vulnerable to Quakes. Overseers are Urging a $2 Million Remedy
By HERBERT LOWE
Inquirer Staff Writer
J. Garfield DeMarco wants everyone to know that it is important to spend nearly $2 million to protect the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge from an earthquake. "We have to be prepared," the chairman of the Burlington County Bridge Commission cracked at this month's meeting, "in case me and John walk across the bridge together. "
DeMarco, a former county Republican chairman whose girth matches his broad influence, was talking about Commissioner John F. Heimmer, no small man himself. Heimmer and everyone else in the commission's Palmyra boardroom erupted in laughter. But the point was a serious one – to the commission, to other bridge officials up and down the Delaware, and certainly to seismic experts and state and federal transportation officials.
Although a quake rarely strikes this area, it could happen, experts say. To them, the $1.9 million that the commissioners have tentatively put aside to retrofit the Tacony-Palmyra would be money well spent. They say the project is basically a matter of driving nails through the bridge's feet to increase its chance of staying put if shaken.
Transportation officials nationwide say thousands of older bridges could collapse from a moderate earthquake. Designs for new bridges built with state or federal funds must meet updated earthquake -proofing standards. Older taxpayer-supported bridges get retrofitted during overhauls.
Because the Burlington County Bridge Commission is essentially a private bridge owner – its money comes from commuter tolls – neither the Federal Highway Administration nor the state Department of Transportation will order an earthquake retrofit for the Tacony-Palmyra. That leaves the commission, even though it's already put the $1.9 million aside, still wrestling over what to do.
"That really threw us. That $2 million pricetag was a bit staggering," said commission spokesman Robert Stears. "The bridge has stood since 1929 without any kind of earthquake affecting it. It's not as if earthquakes really happen very much in this region."
But what if the bridge had opened two years earlier? Two major quakes strong enough to knock chimneys off rooftops have rocked New Jersey since the Civil War: in 1871, along the Delaware River near Salem, and in 1927, at the Shore due east of Trenton, said Willis S. Jacobs, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.
What would happen to cars on a 60-year-old bridge that's not up to standard if Mother Nature struck that hard today?
"I can't say," Jacobs said. "But I think most of the construction at that time didn't take into account earthquake activity. "
Don't forget: There is plenty more traffic roaring in the 1990s than in the '20s. Think about rush hour on any bridge linking New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Who can forget what happened to the double-decker span linking Oakland and San Francisco when a major earthquake rocked California in 1989?
Not DeMarco. "Have you ever seen a bridge collapse in an earthquake ?" he asked at a bridge commission hearing Sept. 7. "It's a scary sight."
THE BELLS OF BOSTON
No one is saying the area should expect a damaging quake soon. Then again, no one is saying it shouldn't.
"There's no way to say, 'Oh, yeah, there's going to be a Magnitude 6 ( earthquake , as measured on the Richter scale) in the Philadelphia metropolitan area at such-and-such a time,' " said Donald Goralski, spokesman for the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research at the State University of New York at Buffalo. "The question is, do you want to be ready for it if it happens, or do you not want to be ready for it? "
The earth's tectonic plates don't have to shift near Philadelphia for it to suffer, seismologists warn. East Coast quakes can damage areas 10 times as large as those in the West, because East Coast rocks are older, denser and have fewer fault lines than western rocks. Seismologists know, for example, that in 1811 and 1812, a series of quakes centered in Missouri rang church bells a thousand miles away in Boston.
Still, it is difficult to get people, including elected officials, on the urbanized East Coast to take earthquakes seriously. A very minor earthquake in February that was centered between Mount Holly and Cherry Hill and lasted a few seconds measured a mere 2.5 on the Richter scale. It didn't even make front-page news.
'FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY'
Experts consider earthquakes the most potentially dangerous natural phenomenon, because they are the least expected - especially in the East. "For the eastern United States, the real danger is not a major earthquake , which is inevitable, but our false sense of security, which is not," then-Sen. Albert Gore said at a 1989 forum on the issue in Washington.
The Burlington County Bridge Commission began testing its sense of security about two years ago, when engineers drew up plans to re-deck the Tacony- Palmyra Bridge. The commission also operates the Burlington-Bristol Bridge and five smaller, toll-free bridges.
While researching what is now a three-year, $20 million project expected to start in 1994, the engineers found two surprises.
First, the Tacony-Palmyra's four lanes are too skinny: They should be 13 feet wide, not 8 feet, according to federal standards. The commission may reduce traffic to three lanes before the project is done, said spokesman Stears.
The next surprise was the obsolete earthquake standards. The commission wanted to heed the latest standards dictated by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The group's members ensure each year that standards are uniform nationwide.
Stears said the commission was still researching several questions, including a big one: What if the bridge is not retrofitted and an earthquake hits? Would the commission be liable?
What the commission cannot do is keep a sizable earthquake from damaging the span. "We always expect damage from an earthquake," said William E. Williams, structural engineer for the Pennsylvania division of the Federal Highway Administration. "What you're trying to do in simplest terms is to keep that bridge from coming off its foundations."
Picture the bridge as a man standing up, his feet as his foundation, holding a dozen expensive plates. If the floor moves, the man could lose his balance. Even if he didn't fall, the plates – like cars on a bridge – would probably shake, rattle and roll.
In a retrofit, workers strengthen the bridge by planting its pilings more firmly in the concrete foundation – for instance, by increasing the size and strength of the bolts that anchor the bridge. In other words, they put nails in the man's feet.
"What we're trying to do is tie you down to the floor so you move with the floor," Williams said.
But should the commission spend $1.9 million on an unlikely earthquake? "They should and, in fact, most of the bridge-owning authorities (in the United States) are working to retrofit their existing bridges as fast as they can," said David J. Hensing, deputy director of the highway officials' group.
The Delaware River Port Authority will do an earthquake retrofit on the Walt Whitman Bridge, which opened in 1957, as part of a multiyear, $100 million repair project starting next spring, said spokesman Joseph K. Diemer.
"It's just good business. These are major investments, and you have to protect your investments," Diemer said, referring to the Port Authority's other properties: the Benjamin Franklin, Commodore Barry and Betsy Ross Bridges.
The Benjamin Franklin Bridge, which opened in 1926, last underwent a rehabilitation between 1984 and 1987. The span was not retrofitted for earthquakes, because the new standards weren't in place, Diemer said.
But commuters shouldn't fear, he said. "The bridge is safe," Diemer said. ''To whatever degree you can say something is safe, that bridge is safe."
The Commodore Barry and Betsy Ross Bridges opened in the mid-1970s. They won't be retrofitted for earthquakes until major repairs are needed, Diemer said. As for the Tacony-Palmyra, the Burlington commission could decide as early as next month whether to spend the $1.9 million and do the retrofit.
"After that earthquake in Maple Shade, we need to be sure," DeMarco said at the bridge commission hearing.
Everyone in the boardroom laughed again.