Tuesday Overnight Open Thread - November 18, 2025 [Doof]

Howdy Hordelings! Welcome to the Tuesday night ONT. So glad you stopped by. What's going on in your world tonight?

Big Internet Outage Earlier Today

Please excuse tankdemon for being late. He was digging through his collection of Compute! magazines looking for the issue with Hunt the Wumpus cheat codes.

Have You Seen The Bridge?

Where's that confounded bridge?

As you are probably well aware, the Key Bridge in Baltimore has been closed since March 2024 due to being struck by a cargo ship. Initial estimates for the rebuild were approximately $2 Billion with a forecasted re-opening in 2028. Now the state of MD is saying the rebuild will, get this, cost a lot more and take a lot longer. I know you're totally shocked by these developments!

Cost of Key Bridge Replacement Upped to $5 Billion, Timeline Delayed to 2030

Rendering of the new Key Bridge design

Commuters, residents, and business owners waiting for a new Key Bridge will have to wait longer than previously though… and construction will cost two to three times as much.

The Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) released new cost and timeline estimates one day before the National Transportation Safety Board released the failures that led the M/V Dali to lose power, strike the bridge, and cause the deadly collapse.

MDTA says it is working with the Federal Highway Administration to “quickly and safely” advance the rebuilding of the bridge that people and commerce operations relied on. MDTA announced it has raised the cost estimate to a range of $4.3-$5.2 billion, up from $1.7 billion. The predicted opening date of the bridge has been pushed back from 2028 to late 2030.

Why, you ask?

MDTA attributes the doubling or tripling of the cost to changing national economic conditions and material costs, which the agency says have increased dramatically. Because the cost and timeline estimates were made less than two weeks after the collapse on March 26, 2024, they didn’t factor in pre-construction activities (which have been underway since this summer), advanced design, and updated data points.

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A big part of the cost increase comes from the length of the main bridge span and the height of the main piers. The new bridge’s main span will be 1,665 feet long to accommodate today’s large ships (some of which are much larger than the Dali).

I'm sorry -- WHAT?? The original estimates didn't factor in pre-construction activities or the length of the new main span??? Nobody picked up on that a year and a half ago? Yeah, OK.

Here's a recent photo of pre-construction activities.

Some additional info to consider. From marylandmatters.org

Within hours of the bridge’s collapse, then-President Joe Biden promised that the federal government would cover 100% of the cost of replacement. That pledge was later codified into law by Congress.

But President Donald Trump (R) has repeatedly hinted that he does not feel bound by that agreement. In an online spat with Gov. Wes Moore (D) in August, whcn Moore slammed Trump’s suggestion that he might send National Guard troops into Baltimore, the president ended a lengthy social media post by saying he “gave Wes Moore a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge. I will now have to rethink that decision???”

And U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, while pledging that the federal government is committed to working with the state to deliver a new Key Bridge, has pressed the state for updates on costs and the timeline for the reconstruction.

“Congress granted the Secretary of Transportation important authorities to conduct critical oversight to ensure that Federal highway funds are properly managed, and I take this authority seriously,” Duffy said in a September letter to state officials. “It is my role to guarantee that federally funded projects benefit the entire Nation through every dollar spent.”

In that letter, Duffy also warned that the state’s “reliance on race- or sex-conscious factors in contracting decisions” could threaten the project. It was a reference to the state Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, which aims to use state contracts to bolster minority- and women-owned businesses.

Kiewit, the contractor overseeing the bridge project, has committed to a goal of using 26% “disadvantaged business enterprises,” including campanies [sic] that are at least 51% owned and controlled by one or more minority individuals.

What does Governor Moore say about that?

In a statement Monday night, Moore said the state will “continue to work with the Trump Administration to find ways to reduce costs and rebuild faster.” The higher costs and longer timeline are the result of outside factors, “not discretionary state choices,” he said.

Yup. Not his fault. And definitely not any cronyism or grift going on.

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In another part of the country, a bridge nears completion.

New Yellowstone Bridge Replaces Crumbling 62-Year-Old Span

Big news, big bridge - visitors to Yellowstone National Park are now using the new Yellowstone River Bridge.

This major Great American Outdoors Act project is moving into its final phase as crews continue work on overlooks, remove the old bridge, and restore the Lost Creek drainage. The full project is expected to be completed in 2026.

The bridge was one of the biggest projects in the park's recent history.

The old bridge was deemed structurally deficient, with crumbling concrete. The new bridge, located upstream, is more than twice as long, at 1,285 feet, as the 62-year-old bridge.

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The project was originally estimated to cost slightly more than $71 million, but park officials said the rising cost of labor and materials like concrete and steel pushed the budget to $118 million.

Wes Moore is probably laughing at the relatively tiny price tag for this bridge!

Palate Cleansing Videos

Sorry - embedding X videos isn't working today.

Guy from the future?

Master move in Jenga

Otter News

The good kind of otters - not the rapey ones.

Baby Sea Otter Named Caterpillar Rescued off Central California Coast

Conservationists recently reunited a mother otter with her baby and caught it on film.

It seems surreal when marine conservationists plop the lost baby sea otter into the frigid waters of Morro Bay in Central California.

Before it makes its way back into the arms of its mother, the thing just bobbed around like a crabbing buoy.

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For two hours, the team plied the coastline, blasting the call off of one side of the boat and then the other with no luck. Finally, a female otter popped her head above the water and began to take interest in the boat—something otters almost never do; they have no interest in people or boats typically.

The intern moved the speaker around the sides of the boat to see if the visitor would follow the sound: which it did, giving them the cue to throw man overboard overboard.

With up to 970,000 strands of hair per square inch, the sea otter’s fur is the densest of any animal. An air layer sits between the skin and the base of the fur that prevents any water from reaching it. It is, therefore, startlingly buoyant.

Lowering it gently into the water, it floated helplessly on its back, rolling around as if it were on a thick quilt. Mom swam over, grabbed the baby, and began to smell it rather intensely before swimming away, reunited with its pup.

Video at the link

This Date in History

Starting off with sports. On this date in 1985 - The Theismann Injury.

Kinda gruesome to watch, but if you're interested - here ya go!

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Moving on to music - some noteworthy albums were released on this date in history.

2002 - The debut album from the supergroup Audioslave, which featured Chris Cornell on vocals along with 3 members of Rage Against the Machine (at least one of whom is a Trump-hating uberdouche).

1991 - Achtung Baby from U2. Yes, this band takes a lot of deserved scorn from the Horde. But they did make some great music in the early days, and I'd say this is their last really good album. I'll forego the hits / singles from the album and go with a deep track - dedicated to a lovely lady who is gone but will never be forgotten. This was among her favorites.

1985 - Psychocandy, debut album from The Jesus and Mary Chain. I remember buying this CD when it came out. The audio mix is very heavy on treble. Not sure why.

Also in 1985, a banger of an album was released. Here's a track from it.
Dedicated to Mis Hum.

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