Big Dig vs. PSC Metals

Recycling Today gives us a much better view of the 'scrap yard' that is PSC Metals (formerly Steiner-Liff) in the backyard of LP Field. Back in August when the grand unveiling of the Big Dig was made I suggested that we didn't really appreciate this facility. Maybe this article will help.

The scrap yard succeeds because it serves as a key recycling post for the 100-mile radius centered on Nashville. Much of the yard's raw materials are brought in by individuals: pickup trucks laden with farm equipment, cars loaded with appliances, peddlers carrying cans.

From this, the scrap yard turns out about 25,000 tons of steel and about 1,000 tons of other metals a month. Three-quarters of the steel leaves the yard by barge. Everything else is shipped out by truck or train.

(snip)

A similar disruption occurred five years ago when PSC relocated its barge loading facility, its truck scales and railroad scales to make way for the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge, the span that now links Gateway Boulevard with Shelby Avenue in east Nashville. That project hints at how complex moving the entire facility would be.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation invoked the power of eminent domain, but it still had to pay $5.3 million for four acres of land, a small corner of PSC's operations. Extrapolating from that, city officials estimate it would take about $100 million to acquire the more than 90 acres of land under PSC and its neighbors. The estimate does not include the cost of cleaning up the land.

Oddly, this article is credited to The Tennessean. But I don't recall seeing it printed locally and I can't find it in their archives.


Hat tip: Timothy via the East Nashville e-list.

Nashville's Big Dig

Shades of Boston's Big Dig and Memphis' Mud Island. Last night dreamers revealed a plan to create our own Panama Canal in Nashville. I don't think so.

"Not many cities are actually making their rivers wider." said Gavin McMillan on of the planners. Tennessean

Well, there's a reason for that. Let's name a few.

$292 million dollars. And no, just because you can get federal dollars for this project doesn't mean it's free. Where do people think those federal dollars come from? From mere citizens in one way or another. Any taxpayer whose been around nearly any time at all knows that there is no way that's what this project will actually cost 'just' $292 million. In the end it will be appreciably more.

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. I know that many have considered that recycling center a eyesore. Well get over it. It's legitimate and honest work. Try seeing it in a more positive light. Steiner-Liff (PSC now) has been there quite some time and were reducing, reusing and recycling long before it was cool. I and many other women I know clothed out children from the fabric bins that used to be there. We're not the only Nashvillians that dumped broken appliances there grateful to know that it wasn't going to a landfill. Let's spin that site as proof positive that for decades Nashville has been doing its part in the war on waste.

Catering to a Jamestown mentality. One of the lessons my children get from the founding of Jamestown is that when the swells don't pull their weight and focused on recreation instead of the essentials and the town suffered greatly as a result. When you've got a segment of your population focused on how to have fun and catering to those focused on having fun you're in potential danger. In an economic downturn what's going to be the first thing to go? Jobs at PSC or boat sales and Titans tickets?

Mud Island. Please.

Where were councilmembers? They were down at the Planning Commission meeting that was scheduled for just about the same time. I was there too. My invitation from Metro Planning to this meeting came just about 48 hours before this big dig unveiling. I e-mailed back and fussed about the lack of notice and the conflict with the Planning Commission meeting. I got no response. This conflict came off as if they didn't really want some folks to come. Now I know why.

Long term. Do we have any guarantees that when this dig is finished in 15 years or so, and you know just like the money the timeframe will grow, we'll still have a contract with the Titans for the use of the stadium? And when the Titans decide that they need a new stadium have we dug ourselves into a hole that we can't get out of?

A final master plan, paid for with a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and $200,000 from the Metro Parks Department, is scheduled to be presented in December. City Paper

Well, there's another $400,000 we'll never see again and could have been put to better use. I wonder how many policemen, teachers, emergency room visits or sidewalks that would have provided?