Where's the Contingency Plan?"

In this post from just a few days ago -- Remove the viaduct? Honestly, I have no opinion at this time; but I do have one question -- I realize now that I should have emphasized the importance of the contingency plan. The immediate issue is not whether it would be nice to rid ourselves of the Viaduct -- of course that would be nice -- but what does the Plan say if nature does it for us.

There are several reasons for placing importance on the Contingency Plan.

1. If the experts who assure us that there is an emergency -- that the next big quake will bring down the Viaduct -- are correct, then we will have to deal with the situation. Period. It will happen sooner or later. And we should be prepared for it. Are we?

2. The contingency plan should reveal a great deal about the actual impacts of removing the Viaduct and leaving it down i.e. a contingency plan for such a horrendous event would I assume include some very specific assumptions, numerical models, likely impacts described to a very specific degree and over a period of many months and plausible emergency prescriptions.

Now if there is no contingency plan at all, that also means several things:

1. That the people in charge of this element of our infrastructure are indeed incompetent;

or

2. They really don't believe that the Viaduct will come down in anything short of a ten-thousand year earthquake and for which no amount of planning is sufficient.

So in either case, it's relevant to ask "Where's the Contingency Plan?"

UPDATE: I am assured by a high government official -- about whom everyone says only nice things -- that indeed there is " an extensive contingency planning exercise." My question is whether such a "planning exercise" is like the "WMD development program" which Mr. Bush told us existed in Iraq.

Comments

[Adam Krom]

I moved away from Denver just in time to miss the start of T-REX construction -- the massive rebuilding of I-25 through South Denver and the construction of the parallel light rail line. This is a major artery, and it has been under construction now for several years. Utter chaos was predicted, but failed to materialize. Not only was traffic management planning sound, but the local transportation seems robust enough to have absorbed the impact with few ill effects. Still, I am sure many people look forward to the completion of the project.

[Stefan Sharkansky]

a high government official -- about whom everyone says only nice things

You must be talking about President Bartlett.