An opinion piece addresses our infrastructure, its age and use to the breaking point.
Minn. Bridge Collapse Reveals Brittle America
It will take time to determine why the Interstate 35 bridge collapsed, so tragically, during the height of a Minneapolis rush hour on Wednesday night. But investigators will likely find that two factors contributed to its failure: age and heavy use. Bridge 9340 was constructed in 1967, 11 years after the launch of the Eisenhower Interstate System. Until it plunged into the Mississippi River, it served as a transportation lifeline for the growing Twin Cities population, carrying across its 14 spans many of the SUVs, cars and trucks that accounted for the 42 percent rise in Minnesota’s vehicle traffic from 1990 to 2003.
Age and heavy use are by no means isolated conditions. According to a report card released in 2005 by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 160,570 bridges, or just over one-quarter of the nation’s 590,750-bridge inventory, were rated structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The nation’s bridges are being called upon to serve a population that has grown from 200 million to over 300 million since the time the first vehicles rolled across the I-35W bridge. Predictably that has translated into lots more cars. American commuters now spend 3.5 billion hours a year stuck in traffic, at a cost to the economy of $63.2 billion a year.
Related Link:
CNN: Reports: Problems with Minnesota bridge noted twice since 2001
Bush did it. Ask any truther.
So many dollars, paid by so many in taxes over the years, all over this great country, and we can not repair our levies and bridges ?
The unions, and government bureaucracy must be held accountable.
I am only concerned that the Dems will use this as one more excuse to raise taxes so they can fund the complete overhaul of the interstate highway and bridge system, nevermind that we have been paying taxes to that end for the last 40 years. Instead of using the federal gasoline tax for the general porkbarrel slush fund, how about putting it to the use for which it was enacted? Maintaining and refurbishing the nations roads and bridges???
I have a question that the MSM can pursue during there endless hours of speculation and rerunning the same 10 pictures: The Brooklyn Bridge that everyone tries to jokingly sell was completed in 1883. Why does it still stand but modern day bridges like this latest one fail, built in 1967?
This is a big problem in Southern California. The legislature uses bait and switch tactics with bugets, and ballot propositions. The last propsition to fix and improve roads, said that the funds could not be used for any other purpose, but at the bottom of the prop. it said the money could be redirected or borrowed in an emergency, or in case of a buget shortfall. So basically, give the state money to repair roads, and they will use it as they please. Remember the propsition (1995 after Northridge Quake) to retrofit 30 overpasses deemed to be at risk of collapse in a similar event? $360 million in new taxes were collected and seven years later only five overpasses were retrofitted, the rest of the money I understand was “redirected to pressing buget issues”. One will never be so “pressed” as being under a fallen overpass. Legislators will not stop robbing the tax coffers to give away freebies to voting constituents. The problem is endemic throughout the legislature on both sides.
It seems to me, a huge culprit in so many bridges being classified structurally deficient would have to be our penchant for awarding construction contracts to the lowest bidder. I don’t claim to be an expert in the area of economics, or business, however I believe there is a lot to be desired, when we trust bridge building to the person who comes up with the lowest bid. Growing up, my dad always told me you get what you pay for. nuff said…
Correct me if I am wrong, but the bridge that stands parrallel to the one that collapsed was built several decades EARLIER, yet it still stands.
Among many problems we have in this country is that we fell in love with the concept of ‘fast and cheap’. Yes, it was a nice idea to have a free-standing bridge with no cantalievers, but why trade proven design safety for something nice looking but unproven over time?
My only complaint with the Popular Mechanics piece is that it waves a hand at the concept that stuff gets old and breaks and sometimes we just can’t do anything about it. Maybe I’m being naieve, but getting 83 years out of a steam pipe sounds like a pretty good design to me. The costs of going around and replacing every old piece of infrastructure – especially when you consider just HOW MANY miles of pipe and wire crawl under the major cities of the US – would be beyond stratospheric. When you consider that most of it is fine at the moment, it’s hard to justify that sort of thinking.
Yes, it’s terrible when a pipe bursts and people are injured, but as I said – sometimes that happens to 83 year old things – even people.
I can’t say the same about bridges. When this bridge was given a failing bill of health two years ago, why weren’t repairs started immediately? Why was this bridge undergoing repairs two years later, only to collapse?
The problem the government seems to always have in this country isn’t spending money – it’s knowing when and how to spend it the right way.
Why does this country throw money at other ungrateful countries when we have so many problems here at home? Instead of funding the U.N., giving aid to the Palestinians, rebuilding Iraq (and not charging them for it – we can be paid in oil), giving huge aid packages to Israel, giving huge military aid to Saudia Arabia, and untold aid in the form of our military presence throughout the world (Europe, Japan, …)- we should put all that money instead into building handsome bridges, increasing port security and inspecting ALL imports into this country, especially foodstuffs, building a wall along the border, funding Social Security before it bankrupts, etc etc etc. Don’t raise taxes, instead, stop giving U.S. taxpayer money away.