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Jeff Bezos’s Yacht to Force Dismantling of 130-Foot High Dutch Bridge
- Jddndjxu 5y agoWill journalists write about the fact that Bezos gave $500 million to the local Dutch economy, which I think the locals would rather have over temporarily disassembling this bridge?
- krapp 5y agoNot everyone places money above all other concerns.
- PaulHoule 5y agoOuch. Bezos makes many faux pas like this that aren't really so bad but keep coming and make him look like an insensitive jerk who doesn't care how his actions affect people or what they think.
- nixgeek 5y agoDo you think he doesn’t know, or do you think he doesn’t care?
- twalla 5y agoThe simpler explanation maybe that Bezos actually _is_ an insensitive jerk who doesn't care how his actions affect people or what they think.
- rosndo 5y agoThis isn’t a faux pas, this is a hit piece. Any halfway intelligent person would be able to tell the difference between the two. The bridge was designed to do this, this is something that the builders intended. The previous bridge on this spot was actually replaced with this one because the previous one couldn’t accommodate the local shipbuilding industry.
- jacquesm 5y agoYou probably missed the bit where the Yacht is higher than the maximum elevation of the bridge, the part where it was decreed that the bridge is a monument and that in the future it would no longer be taken apart for tall ships to pass because of the risk of structural damage to the bridge each time that happens.
- rosndo 5y ago> the part where it was decreed that the bridge is a monument and that in the future it would no longer be taken apart for tall ships to pass because of the risk of structural damage to the bridge each time that happens. That’s just the nature of government. The people running things in 2022 are not bound by the promises of people who used to run things in 2017.
- foxyv 5y agoI wish there was a sort of mark on posts that point to paywalled junk like Bloomberg. I hate clicking through and getting a "Hey pay us money!" on every other link.
- foxyv 5y agoOh boy a special offer! > *$415 ($415 USD) charged to your card annually after 1 year introductory offer. Cancel at anytime. Pbbbbt!
- diroussel 5y agoJust delete cookies for the site in question. Poof. Paywall gone. Seems to work on every “first 3 articles free” paywall I’ve seen.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- rambojohnson 5y agohello paywall.
- abdulhaq 5y agohttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60241145 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60241145
- ivolimmen 5y agoHere is a Englishversion of the Dutch news on the topic: https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2022/02/a-bridge-too-far-local-anger-at-dismantling-of-historic-bridge-for-bezos-boat/ https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2022/02/a-bridge-too-far-local...
- savant_penguin 5y agoDo you know things like that ahead of time? Or do you just realize "oh dam it won't fit" right before delivery
- gardenfelder 5y agohttps://archive.is/gMuWf https://archive.is/gMuWf
- polishdude20 5y agoI mean, isn't this the shipbuilder's responsibility? It's not bezos' responsibility to vet the bridge heights of the port and compare that to ship drawings.
- Isthatablackgsd 5y agoI read somewhere yesterday that the city council approved the plan. For the shipbuilder to build the ship, it would need the city council approval dues to sizing concerns. And somehow the city council approved it, even the council is aware of dismantling the bridge temporary. So I am not sure whose fault for allowing this. So it seems that it is the city council that approved this plan. So the investigation should be looking into those council for allowing this to happen in the first place.
- rosndo 5y agoWhy should there be an investigation? Allowing this is an perfectly normal thing, shipbuilding is a crucial part of the local economy and the bridge was literally designed to do this.
- jacquesm 5y agoBut it was not designed to be dismantled.
- rosndo 5y agoThe middle part was designed to come off cleanly, although that is pretty much an inherent feature of these designs and not necessarily a deliberate choice.
- jacquesm 5y agoPrecisely, and because of the special status of that particular bridge the decision was made to not expose it to further risk. It's a bit like moving the Eiffeltower out of the way because some moron wants to move a building through Paris, but on a slightly smaller scale and with the bridge section already 'loosely coupled' to the supports. But the risk is real, witness what happened in Alphen and no amount of handwringing will put it back together if they something goes wrong during disassembly, storage or reassembly. It is now a part of our heritage and should be treated as such.
- hyperman1 5y agoI wonder how bad this actually is. Things like new ships tend to get bigger and bigger as time passes. Even if Bezos pushed the problem forward in time, it seems the shipyards behind the bridge will run into this problem again and again.
- krapp 5y ago> Things like new ships tend to get bigger and bigger as time passes. That isn't a law of nature. The shipyards could have chosen not to build a ship too tall to pass under the bridge. We have regulations on the size of semi trucks rather than expect every highway overpass to be dismantled to make way for arbitrarily large cargo, there is no reason this shipyard or the Dutch government should simply put up their hands, rather than make them build a shorter craft, or dismantle the mast, or something.
- vmception 5y ago> The enormity of the yacht’s sails will make it unsafe to land a helicopter onboard, so Bezos has commissioned a support yacht equipped with a helipad to trail alongside. Okay, that's amazing lmao! My biggest aspiration was to have a single yacht with a helipad, car, and garage for another smaller boat and jetty. This guy is like "nope, another yacht for the helipad"
- testmasterflex 5y agoDid you get it?
- vmception 5y agoNope, I don't like the idea of maintenance, and even with the prerequisite of a whole crew that does all of that, I still can't reconcile the time needed to enjoy it amongst my other material possessions. Like, how often do I even use my terrace? But I am watching that culture to see if anyone has solved all of this in an enticing way.
- raisedbyninjas 5y agoBefore I reached the end of the sentence I was imagining the solution to be some more exotic and nimble aircraft. Or maybe a deployable helipad. I just wasn't thinking with enough excess.
- labrador 5y agoIn other news, Jeff Bezos gets terrible PR advice Nice! What PR pros can learn from Jeff Bezos’ curt communications style https://www.prweek.com/article/1722976/nice-pr-pros-learn-jeff-bezos-curt-communications-style https://www.prweek.com/article/1722976/nice-pr-pros-learn-je...
- lp0_on_fire 5y agoI'm not the biggest fan of Jeff Bezos but this is clickbait. They're (the city) temporarily dismantling a portion of the bridge to get the yacht out. Rotterdam is a city well known for shipbuilding and it brings a lot of money and jobs into the city as far as I can tell.
- somat 5y agoI am still looking for a better article but yeah bloomberg is trying to make a controversy out of nothing. The two options are dismantle the masts for passage under the bridge(it appears a poor design to have a sailing ship with a mast that can not easily be repaired) or dismantle and reassemble the bridge and you can bet that Bezos is paying the city of Rotterdam to preform this passage action. But as you can tell from the fervor of accusations here "Jeff Bezos pays the city of Rotterdam to temporarily dismantle the De Hef bridge for passage of his new superyacht" does not make a good headline. edit: here is a better article. https://observer.com/2022/02/jeff-bezos-dismantle-dutch-bridge-allow-superyacht-sail/ https://observer.com/2022/02/jeff-bezos-dismantle-dutch-brid...
- jacquesm 5y agoThe bridge has been given a special status and an agreement was made not to dismantle it any more because each time they do that they risk damage to the structure. Shipbuilders are well aware of this but they must have figured that if they just build the boat that the rules will be bent.
- potamic 5y agoWouldn't it be easier to dismantle the mast and rebuild it?
- zardo 5y agoOne would think so. Presumably they aren't going to scuttle the ship if a mast breaks, but remove and replace it.