TODAY'S TALKER: How Safe Are Our Bridges?

The bridges in this country are not at all safe. They were constructed at the same time the highway systems were developed in the late 50s and early 60s and are not meant to support the traffic that we have now. It's very scary. The fact is that, as with so many other things, we don't look ahead and plan for it. We wait until the debacle before we do something. It just proves that we are not as smart and evolved as we think we are. Future generations will look back and laugh at how we 'planned' things, among some other humor we are unwittingly providing for a more sophisticated future society.

As I mentioned on another article...this has happened before...During rush hour (around 5 pm) on December 15, 1967 when the Silver Bridge, connecting Kanauga, Ohio and Point Pleasant, WV, collapsed and fell into the Ohio River and killed 46 people. It was also on U.S. 35. It is believed that stress and structural concerns were the cause of the collapse, much as it is speculated to be the case for the collapse last night. Another interesting link between the two bridges is that the Silver Bridge collapsed in 1967, the same year that the Minneapolis bridge was built...

There was a construction crew on the bridge doing a resurfacing job that cut traffic from eight lanes to four,

I missed this before! Wow. I wonder what civil engineers would say about putting rush hour traffic in half the space!

No, our nation's bridges are not where they should be, in terms of safety. We've been told for years how the infrastructure of this nation's highway system is crumbling and in dire need of heavy funding. However, since 1981, the mantra in Washington DC has been to cut taxes and gut funding for anything related to the public infrastructure. We're beginning to see the results, unfortunately, and will undoubtedly see much more in the future.

Well, I KNOW the bridges in my area aren't safe, because I live and work in Minneapolis. This is a sickening, heartbreaking tragedy.

On my bike rides along the River Road (I've lived here all my life), I've looked up at the trestles and construction of the various bridges along the river, and to my layman's eye, they look old, cracked, and sometimes downright scary.

I believe the engineers who wrote the last report on the 35W bridge said it was at 50% efficiency. Um, that doesn't sound very good, does it - 50% of the bridge was decifient, yet no one did a thing about it.

I'm always traveling over the Mississippi River bridges to and from Mpls and St. Paul (and had driven over the 35W bridge thousands of times), and I want to know how safe the others are! I've never been one to clutch the steering wheel in fear when crossing over water, but from now on, I will be.

If there is a lesson in this human tragedy, it's to pay attention to our nation's failing infrastructure. In Pennsylvania, where I live, the Governor's office reports there are nearly 6,000 structurally deficient bridges — the highest number of any state — and more than 8,500 miles of roads that are in need of repair.

Governor Ed Rendell decided to bite the bullet with his 2007-2008 budget, which calls for record funding for transportation. The budget created quite a stir and wasn't approved right away, forcing the closing of some "non-essential" state services for a day. People are still griping about proposed new tolls. Bridges and roads aren't as sexy as education, social services and tourism, but they are literally the foundation for economic development and can lead to disaster if not attended to.

If we raised taxes just enough to balance the budget, and shifted the 9% of the budget we're paying as interest on the national debt now to highways, that would quadruple funding for rebuilding our highway infrastructure. But the top 1% income bracket would have to give up some of their tax cuts. It's sad when you think about it. The very people who have benefitted the most from the highway infrastructure that the working people of this nation bled and died to construct, are willing to let it fall apart while they celebrate getting to keep what they love to call "their money." I find the attitude illogical, irresponsible, and just plain stupid.

This is an extraordinarily eye-opening article! When I lived in America some decades ago, I remember a series of similar articles across the country in the 1980s, where exactly this issue was debated. And various state and federal agencies reacted by stating they were immediately getting on the case to fix the potential catastrophes. Obviously, that was just one big lie. I'm rather shocked. I can understand fed and state governments pulling the wool over our eyes about certain politically sensitive issues, but our own infrastructure. It makes me wonder if the four-layered cloverleafs from San Diego to San Fransisco really have been reinforced so they don't pancake down on schoolbusses in case of a minor earthquake is also bs.

I should have written "I can almost understand..." the political wool over the eyes bit.

In Seattle we have a traffic arterial that runs through the city near the waterfront and carries a heavy load of commuter/commercial traffic every day. It's called "The Viaduct". It's a double-decker concrete structure, similar to a one that collapsed and killed a number of people in L.A. during their last major earthquake. The Puget Sound region is just about as seismically active as the L.A. area. The various governments involved (city, county, state) have been dithering over how to replace it--and the need for replacement has long been recognized--for several years now. Only luck and the grace of God have (so far) saved large numbers of people from becoming sandwich filling. In addition, we have a long floating bridge that connects the East and West sides of Lake Washington--which has required replacement in the past, when it stopped floating. It too, is long overdue for replacement.

I echo what Devin said!!!!... so much that I must reprint it (below my comment).

This bridge had been declared unfit 5 years ago, but there was no money to pay for it's upkeep. No money because of phony repub "tax cuts" that have left us with an overwhelming budget deficit in less than 7 years after Clinton left office with a budget surplus.

Name me just one repub who left office with a budget surplus in the last 50 years. Just one.

We must change this failure of a repub plan to dismiss the importance of taxes - it is INSANSE thinking! Taxes pay for the things we need and use every day. How have so many people in the US been hoodwinked into believing that taxes are bad? Why do they buy the lies of the rich repubs who only are moneytheists at heart and only have their own personal financial success at the core of everything they do.

Taxes pay for our infrastructure, bridges, tunnels, roads, our police, firemen, the vehicles they use to fight fires and rescue people, medicare, medicaid, our military and all their equipment and vehicles, homeland defense, social security, our government operations, our foreign missions and embassies, must I go on? Why is everyone so against taxes when it is taxes that pay for everything we all need?

Devin's post reprinted - please read it!
> "If we raised taxes just enough to balance the budget, and shifted the 9% of the budget we're paying as interest on the national debt now to highways, that would quadruple funding for rebuilding our highway infrastructure. But the top 1% income bracket would have to give up some of their tax cuts. It's sad when you think about it. The very people who have benefitted the most from the highway infrastructure that the working people of this nation bled and died to construct, are willing to let it fall apart while they celebrate getting to keep what they love to call "their money." I find the attitude illogical, irresponsible, and just plain stupid. "

If taxes were used properly, maybe so, but raising taxes only serves to further line already brimming pockets.

When I go home to MO, I cringe over the Mississippi all the way to the other side. This won't help. So many of these bridges are outdated. States like Mo can't afford replacements.

NOT SAFE. Our infrastructure is decrepit and the tax fairy who is supposed to come out and 'fix things' while we're sleeping has been asleep at the switch for quite a long time.

The only surprising thing about this latest catastrophe is that anyone is surprised. I have read numerous editorials and op-ed pieces that quote stastics like those cited above. Our infrastructure is in desperate need of maintenance and repair.

The last story I recall was that engineers in one of our major cities estimate that as much as 30% of the fresh water produced by the cities water treatment plants is lost to leaky pipes. Ever wonder why your water bill is so high?

Joel, that's an amazing observation, about the ancient Romans and Egyptians. No kidding!

I love how everybody proposes somebody else should be taxed. I have an idea--if you really want to fix the bridges (which was actually rated higher than many other kinds of infrastructure), send the government the check yourself. It's easy to think we should do something and not be willing to you yourself sacrifice for it.

The bridges of America have been a source of concern for well over decade. There are many stories on an almost monthly basis that tell of the age and fatigue-related problems the bridges of this country have.
What will we do about it ? Will we buckle down and do what it takes to correct the problem or will we avoid responsibility by blaming it all on lack of action on the part of our politicians?
The money needed to fix all the bridges that need attention in this country is in the many trillions of dollars. That money only comes from one place - the pockets of taxpayers.
If traffic were to be limited on all bridges that are suspect, the chances of another collapse would go way down. But, would we tolerate having to deal with the inconvenience of it taking longer to get somewhere because we had to wait our turn to cross all the bridges we would cross along the way ? The America I live in would answer a big-old " Hell No !".
So, we will pretend that we are heartbroken when our fellow citizens die as the bridge they are crossing collapses, but when it comes to doing what it takes to really fix the problem, we will be satisfied with blaming the problem on politicians and then going merrily on our way.

I can't imagine waiting turns to get over a bridge would delay traffic any longer than the gridlock which caused the extreme stress on this bridge which I'm sure contributed to the collapse of the MN bridge.

Yea ,, makes me scared,,, the bridge here the C-BONNER bridge needs replacing bad here on Hatteras island,, they been arguing over a long or short bridge for over 2 years now I hope this will wake their politician a$$ es up!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Romans and the Egyptians built things that are still with us today and a little bridge which lasted only forty years isn't worth the investment of a new home that is suppose to have a life span of over 50 years- something is funky in the twin cities- maybe they gave it all to Prince?
Nigel for President in 2008

Lets see...... my house was build in the mid 50s with galvanised water pipes instead of copper and an 80 amp fuse box....think I need to do some upgrading?.... naw its working just fine as it is.

What makes me curious are the dixcrepancies that seem to exist regarding the information relative to the bridge's condition.

As I was reading the following during the evening of the collapse, I heard the governor say that the bridge was in good condition.

"The National Bridge Inventory contains a report on this bridge from 2003. It reports the following items:

Deck Condition: Fair.
Superstructure Condition: Poor.
Substructure Condition: Satisfactory.
Scour: Foundations determined to be stable.
Bridge Railings: Meets currently acceptable standards.
Structural Evaluation: Meets minimum tolerable limits to be left in place as-is.
Water Adequacy Evaluation: Superior to present desirable criteria.
Bridge Sufficiency Rating: 50%"

Note that the superstructure was rated poor.

According to the above article, the same organization said the superstructure was rated satisfactory, although the date of that report was not mentioned.

Additionally, a sound bridge obviously doesn't collapse.

Before we can guess how safe our bridges are, it would seem that we need to know how good our information is....If the conclusion of the NBI made in 2003 was later changed, why did that happen?

Could the answer to fixing our bridges be simple? Less shooting, more fixing. Nah, it can't be that easy.

Frankly, I've been wondering what's been keeping our bridges up ? With all the tax cutting and concern for rich people's expensive lifestyles, not a lot gets spent on
bridges, infrastructure, homeland security disaster (like Katrina) relief, or much of anything else. I hope all the Republicans who voted for George Bush and supported all his rich folks' tax cuts are recognizing the results of such irresponsible
policies.

Work on the Hood Canal Bridge in Washington has been delayed until 2009. The eastern end of the bridge needs to be replaced (the bridge is 1 1/4 mi. long). I go over that bridge 3 or 4 times a month or more and sigh with relief every time I make it over and back. High winds are coming this weekend and I am supposed to cross the bridge on Saturday. The bridge is closed when there are high winds. I hope we don't have a disaster happen in the next couple years.