紐約時報今天的文章,講述東北走廊上紐約都會區鐵路通勤的一大瓶頸:Portal bridge.
附上一點簡譯,沒譯到的就請看原文.
104-Year-Old Portal Bridge Presents $900 Million Problem for Rail Commuters
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/nyregion/portal-bridge-presents-northeast-rail-commuters-with-a-104-year-old-problem.html
http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/09/23/nyregion/PORTALweb1/PORTALweb1-master675.jpg
It carries more passenger trains than any other railroad bridge in the Western Hemisphere, yet few people beyond those who rely on it have heard of it. It goes largely unnoticed, unless something goes wrong, which happens with irritating frequency. After all, the bridge is 104 years old.
這座西半球最繁忙的鐵路橋時不時會發生故障,畢竟它已經104歲了.
Every time it swings open to let a boat pass is a test of early-20th-century technology that can snarl train travel from Boston to Washington, the nation’s busiest rail corridor. And over the years, because it is partially made out of wood, it also has proved to be quite flammable.
它可動的旋轉設計可以讓船隻通行,但是同時阻礙了東北走廊的鐵路交通.
To the tens of thousands of commuters on the hundreds of trains that cross it going to or coming from New York City, the Portal Bridge is infamous.
對於數以萬計進出紐約都會區的通勤者來說,Portal bridge可說是惡名昭彰.
Since the start of last year, the bridge has been blamed for about 250 delays on the rails, according to New Jersey Transit, which is its heaviest user.
New Jersey Transit表示該橋自去年初以來造成約250次延誤事件.
Even in an era when so much of the nation’s infrastructure is in a state of disrepair, the Portal Bridge stands out. Everyone agrees that it is in desperate need of replacement, but no one has come up with the money for a new crossing. Two recent significant delays caused by the bridge have focused attention on Amtrak’s stalled effort to obtain the nearly $1 billion needed to replace the creaky bridge.
在眾多不良的基礎建設中該橋也能排在前面,眾人都同意該替換它,但是沒錢.
Each day, about 450 trains carry more than 150,000 riders over the Portal, a fragile choke point that crosses the Hackensack River halfway between Manhattan and Newark.
跨越Hackensack river的本橋每日通行約450列次,搭載15萬餘人次.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2014/09/22/portal-map/f5a5c3c0b65101859a8e4dec580dc024b77fdf91/0923-met-web-PORTALmap-720.png
Every time its center section opens to let a tugboat push a barge full of sludge downriver, there is a reasonable chance that a lot of people will be late for work — or dinner — with delays radiating out from Pennsylvania Station in New York and stretching from the nation’s capital to Massachusetts.
每當橋梁開啟供船隻通行,對鐵路運輸的延誤影響甚至可延伸到麻州以至首都的地域.
When the bridge’s name is uttered in official announcements or in email alerts, riders know that frustration lies just around the bend.
當官方消息提到該橋時,通勤者就知道事情糟糕了.
“If you’re on the train and they say Portal Bridge, you know you’d better make other plans,” said Patrick Williams, who commutes to Midtown Manhattan from Long Branch, N.J. “It usually means big delays for thousands of people.”
"如果在火車上聽到廣播出現Portal bridge的名號,最好快變更計畫,"某通勤者如此說.
Most of those delays are measured in minutes, but when serious problems arise, the backups can last for hours. That is what happened twice over the summer when the bridge failed to swing back into place, delaying trains for as long as 45 minutes during the evening rush.
大多延誤都是幾分之內,但光這個夏天內也有兩次橋轉不回來,造成45分延誤的情況.
A few weeks earlier, wooden fenders beneath the bridge caught fire just after 6:30 p.m., forcing Amtrak officials to cut power to the bridge. In the 70 minutes it took to extinguish the fire and reopen the bridge, 31 trains had been delayed and an additional 21 had been canceled. Commutes to New Jersey suburbs that would take just over an hour took three hours.
在幾周前橋下的木圍籬曾經失火,於下班尖峰導致21列次停駛及31列次延誤.
http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/09/23/nyregion/PORTALweb2/PORTALweb2-articleLarge.jpg
The bridge is largely made of steel, but it has burned before: In 2005, a sparking wire set the fenders ablaze, shutting down all train travel on Amtrak’s mainline in the region overnight.
2005年也燒過一次. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/14/nyregion/14bridge.html
Within Amtrak, which owns and operates it, the Portal is known as the “Achilles’ heel of the Northeast Corridor,” said Drew Galloway, assistant vice president for planning and development. “There are maintenance crews there around the clock. But you can only do so much to a century-old swing bridge.”
Amtrak表示這橋就是東北走廊的阿奇里斯腱.
For something built in 1910, Mr. Galloway said, “structurally, it probably is in reasonable condition.” But, he added, its mechanical and electrical systems are “reaching the end of their useful lives.”
1910年落成的此橋結構尚可,但是電機系統實在已經快不行了.
Indeed, the bridge, expected to last 100 years, is swinging on borrowed time. Federal transportation officials have recognized its precarious state for many years, and they have a plan to replace it with a two-track bridge tall enough for boats to pass under it.
聯邦運輸部門當然知道這情況,提出了新建替代橋梁的規畫.
http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/09/23/nyregion/PORTALweb3/PORTALweb3-articleLarge.jpg
But that plan carries an estimated price of $900 million, none of which has been lined up yet. Mr. Galloway said Amtrak was pushing the project, with New Jersey Transit as its local partner. New Jersey Transit, which operates commuter trains and buses throughout the state, split the $32 million cost of the preliminary engineering of a replacement with Amtrak and also paid $12 million for its final design.
但是新橋估計要花9億鎂,目前一分都沒下來;Amtrak和NJT正在努力推動預算立案.
When the governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, a Republican, announced that New Jersey Transit was canceling its plan to build rail tunnels under the Hudson River to Manhattan, he criticized Democratic elected officials for failing to include funding for a new Portal Bridge in that project. In 2011, Mr. Christie said he had let federal officials know that New Jersey was prepared to contribute a “significant amount of money” toward a new bridge.
紐澤西州長表示州政府也會投入大筆資金.
“There can’t be high-speed rail between New York and Washington without a change at the Portal Bridge,” Mr. Christie said then.
"不對這橋做些什麼,紐約到華府間就不可能有啥高鐵,"州長如此說.
In fact, since a train derailed on it on a Saturday morning in late 1996, the Portal Bridge has lowered the speed of trains approaching and leaving New York to 60 miles per hour. Several cars of that train, which was carrying mail, wound up falling from the tracks into the marsh below. No one was killed, but 43 passengers and crew members on two trains were injured.
1996年發生出軌事故後,此處速限降到只有60mph.
http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/09/23/nyregion/PORTALweb4/PORTALweb4-articleLarge.jpg
Federal investigators determined the cause was a failure to return the rails to the right position after the bridge swung open for a tugboat. Before an opening, the tracks on the bridge’s deck must be raised so they can safely swing over the fixed segments that lead up to them. Getting the tracks lined up again has proved so tricky, and the traffic over the Portal is so heavy, that the Coast Guard has limited the times of day when boats can request an opening.
調查發現出軌的原因是橋梁開啟後復位時沒有讓軌道對準.
Bill Sheehan, the founder of Hackensack Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy group, described the Portal as “decrepit” and said he favored the plan for a taller bridge, even though commercial use on the river had declined over the years.
河川環保人士也支持新橋的案子.
The only regular river traffic comes from the tugs that push barges of sludge from the Bergen County Utilities Authority complex in Little Ferry to a sewage treatment plant in Newark, Mr. Sheehan said. But with its deck just 23 feet above the mean high water line of the river, the bridge is too low for even a fishing boat with a flying bridge to pass under, he said.
畢竟高潮線上23呎的舊橋實在太矮,不要說拖船,就連漁船都過不去.
“The problem with this 100-year-old bridge is when something breaks, they literally have to go back to the machine shop and make a new part,” Mr. Sheehan said. “There isn’t a Bridges ‘R’ Us that has what they need.”
"百年老橋壞了什麼東西都得進工場打一個新的出來,備料可不是大賣場隨買隨有的."