Opinion from the masses

[jay trotta]

because today's Bridge work can be repaired in a quicker fashion than years back, this may be a short lived event. The bigger problem may be the balance of the Bridge; guarateed the State will order inspections, if they haven't already and the balance of the Bridges in the State will undergo continual testing into the future.

we have several Bridges that cross River area's and most have salt water, the damage salt air does over time is critical to the concrete & steel. Barges travel the waterways, a hit can be done and no report filed, and a potential problem goes unrecorded. swift water can undermine the base, there are too many things that can have an effect on a Bridge over water.

we have had similar events here, but I don't recall any major impact on property values; B,C,D- paper players have a quicker and more decisive affect on values than any other unnatural disaster

 

[Richard Carlsen]

In reality, we take such things into consideration (though normally on a much smaller and less horrific scale) in nearly every report we do. There are things that are constantly changing that effect the normal marketability of properties; some temporary and some permanent. Some are more obvious than others such as a bridge falling or a plant employing 7000 people closing or shopping mall going in at a major intersection.

My most recent experience was with a recreational house on 40 acres. This summer, there is some major road work being done to a major north/south US highway to the west requiring a detour that has caused the traffic count past the property to sky-rocket by about 8 to 10 fold. Now cars and trucks go by all hours of the day and night. The way the house is set in the woods seems to capture the sound for only a brief time but it is a quick and sudden road noise. I actually found it quit irritating. However, the road work will be done in about 40 days or so and then the county road will be back to normal with only occasional traffic that can be well tolerated. Peace and quiet will eventually return.

So how did I handle it? I mentioned the repairs, the detour and the increased traffic count in the report but gave no weight to this externality since I knew that it would be temporary and I have to assume that any reasonable, knowledgeable buyer would also understand that it was a temporary situation.

The problem lies in that in a situation like the bridge collapse, first you do not know how long it will take to replace the bridge and secondly, you do not know if there will be any changes in the surrounding infrastructure that will effect the subject property and what the dollar impact will be.

I would be very careful taking any assignments that are directly impacted by such major events until you have a clear understanding of what is to be done to rectify the situation. To me, even a straight-forward residential appraisal in an area impacted by the bridge collapse has to be considered a complex assignment.

 

[Wayne Tomlinson]

Even though the bridge collapse is a terrible event, "That too will pass"
Just this morning it was announced that the adjacent highway across the Mississipi has been converted to Interstate status for the time of the repair, like more than a year, the people will adapt, a few who live right next to the bridge might move, life goes on,\.

Certainly mention the catrastophe, but assume that it will pass, cause it will.

I just had breakfast with a friend who just returned last night from a tour of Moscow and St Petersburg in Russia. The bridge collapse was in the papers there also.

I would think that an appraiser would have to make some far out assumptions to attempt to put a "justifiable" adjustment for the collapse.

Wayne Tomlinson

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I would think that an appraiser would have to make some far out assumptions to attempt to put a "justifiable" adjustment for the collapse.

When a bridge collapsed on I-40 because a barge hit it in 2002, 14 people died. This was about 100 mi. from me but by the time I next used the road, the bride was already fixed. Most people never give it a thought passing over it. In a way that's a sad commentary upon how fleeting life is. The family of those 14 certainly hadn't forgotten and had to relive that tragedy when this collapse occurred. But we realize that if we kept every such event fresh in our minds we'd go mad. So I think there is something genetic that makes us go on and put such things behind us. I suppose everyone knows of at least one family unable to cope. A few years ago a young boy was killed a mile south of me when a car hit water and skidded into his bicycle in front of his home. The parents were unable to remain in the house because of the memory. Another case of a person unwilling to date or socialize after her husband died in a plane crash because it brings back that memory. Its those who cannot forget that we think of as dysfunctional, not those who do.