Aug
4
Written by:
Russ Henke
8/4/2008 4:59 AM
On August 1, 2007, the entire span of the Minneapolis Interstate 35-W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed, with numerous fatalities and injuries, a disaster later reportedly traced to
an original engineering design flaw in the gusset plates connecting the underpinning beams. (Over the months since, corrosion and rust have also been cited as possible culprits).
Back then, the 35-W collapse was discussed in several blog entries in this space.
The Missouri Department of Transportation recently released a report that raises further concerns:
- One out of every four bridges now in use in the United States is classified as “structurally deficient,” just as the I-35W bridge was classified before it failed. That’s about 152,000 bridges, and counting.
- Within the next 15 years almost half of the US bridges will exceed 50 years of age, beyond the life span for which they were designed. Even now, 20% are already over 50 years old.
- Fixing every US bridge flagged with structural issues would cost at least $140 billion, the report said — or nearly double the $80 billion now spent annually on all kinds of transportation infrastructure around the United States. (Note: The IRAQ war costs US taxpayers over $120 billion every year).
- What does the term “structurally deficient” mean? It means that a bridge can no longer carry the load it was intended to support.
Another part of the answer, of course, depends on what else the United States has used the nearly eight years of highway money for over the life of the current administration.
Unfortunately, next year’s US budget priorities will be decided at a time of annual record total federal deficits nearing a half-trillion dollars. “The bleak outlook for the (next) budget will crimp the ability of the next president to carry out any ambitious (infrastructure) spending plans,” The New York Times recently reported.
There was also bad bridge-repair news on the front page of The Wall Street Journal the other day. The Transportation Department’s Highway Trust Fund is now under even heavier pressure, as Americans have cut back on driving because of the 2008 recession economy and outrageous gasoline prices. Taxes on motor fuel provide the money earmarked for the highway fund, a setup that had worked well for past decades.
Now, the US Transportation Department is trying to build support for a modest cash infusion, a goal already on the radar of Congress. In late July 2008, a bill that would inject a mere $8 billion of general tax money into the transportation fund cleared the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives despite objections from Bush 43, who cited “the mounting budget deficit”.
A Republican supporter of the bill, John Mica of Florida, was just as sharp in characterizing the situation he was trying to address. “The highway trust fund is basically busted. This is a national crisis.”
The $8 billion bill passed by a “veto-proof” margin — 387 to 37 — in the House, but has yet to reach a vote in the Senate. If the bill becomes law despite the current president’s opposition, the United States will be taking at least a baby step in the right direction for the bridge-repair advocates.
But the $140 billion goal is still many many steps away on this first anniversary of the Minneapolis 35-W Bridge Collapse.
(By the way, despite 24/7 efforts since last year, the 35-W bridge repairs are still several months away from completion).