NEXT?
Funny, I don’t remember one whimper about infrastructure during the Clinton years. Lists? Get real...
Maybe instead of siphoning off hundreds of billions with ear marks to reward fat cat political donors and special interest groups, maybe the political class should of been taking care of the infrastructure we have now.
Here is a good example of how existing transportation dollars have been misapplied by both the State of Minnesota, and the US Govt that has a direct bearing on this bridge collapse
This bridge was determined structurally deficient in 1990. It was build using 1960s engineering norms that were now out of date.
Maybe during the 1990s the State of Minnesota diverted over a billion dollars of State, and Federal, infrastructure dollars into an eco-freak boondoggle light rail project between down town Minneapolis and the Minneapolis airport. Maybe Minnesota politicians should of been tending to their existing infrastructure instead of wasting our money for political “legacy building” and “prestige” projects.
Using the currently stated cost for rebuilding the bridge at $250 million, for the cost of the light rail project this bridge could of been completely rebuilt from scratch 5 or 6 times during the 1990s.
This “Light Rail”project was largely the brain child of the Metropolitan Council . Either as the head of the council, or one of its most politically connected members, at the time was former VP Walter Mondale’s son Ted.
The sadly ironic thing here is the terminal for this billion dollar waste of state and Federal transportation dollars is about 1 mile from the bridge that collapsed.
Here is the link to the the website about the line. The bridge that collapsed is the one on the map where 35W crosses the blue line of the Mississippi River in the upper right of the map.
http://www.metrocouncil.org/transportation/lrt/lrt.htm
Additional information
This is largely a scare tactic by the media, and a play for more tax money from the politicians.
I looked at that list, knowing many of the local structures. The criteria for ‘obsolete’ is anything less than absolutely brand new, apparently. What a load.
And our state, NC, pulled another 190 million dollars this year from it’s highway trust fund to grease the hands of politicos with pork.
A yearly raid that has shorted this state billions in highway money. But we need to put toll booths on I-95 to raise more money?
The headline is grossly misleading. All the article does is give a state-by-state listing of PERCENTAGES of bridges that are “structurally deficient”-—not an actual list of bridges (which would actually be useful).
Must click the link.
I’m not buying all of msnbc’s panic. They have bridges on the list in my area that were just overhauled....................in the last year.
Some of that, at least where I live, is a bit deceptive.
They name some bridges near me that are small, with 2-lane roads that don’t get heavy traffic.
I also know at least one listed that was replaced when they redid the road recently.
Thanks for posting this.
NEXT?
I don’t see the list.
Does MSNBC not play nice with firefox?
hey in nj...there are bridges crumbling/roads falling apart/school buildings older than helen thomas/electric grids in dire repair.....
nj has the highest state income tax/ 7% sales taxes/extremely high tolls roads/property taxes higher than anywhere in the US.....
yet the great corrupt gov. corslime & lib/dem minions want to sell the turnpike & parkway/spend millions on stem cell research/fully fund all the state govt. giveaways to the unions (after all he has slept with the prez of the union)....
and of course next year...will cry that nj needs to raise taxes to fix the infrasturcture......
lib/dems.....always spending/always trying to raise taxes!!!!
hey in nj...there are bridges crumbling/roads falling apart/school buildings older than helen thomas/electric grids in dire repair.....
nj has the highest state income tax/ 7% sales taxes/extremely high tolls roads/property taxes higher than anywhere in the US.....
yet the great corrupt gov. corslime & lib/dem minions want to sell the turnpike & parkway/spend millions on stem cell research/fully fund all the state govt. giveaways to the unions (after all he has slept with the prez of the union)....
and of course next year...will cry that nj needs to raise taxes to fix the infrasturcture......
lib/dems.....always spending/always trying to raise taxes!!!!
They’ve got numerous bridges from Collin County, TX on the deficient/obsolete list. One that caught my eye was:
O 68.4 289 COLLIN GEORGE BUSH TURNPIKE G BUSH TPKE @ PRESTON RD
George Bush turnpike was completed in the 90’s. One or the other is in the toilette: USA Civil engineering, or this database.
Since just about every bridge in my area is on it, the list is useless. I need a list of bridges that will collapse before they actually do!
There's some bridges and Interstate overpasses near my house that are basically brand new and tagged 'O' for obsolete.
More eamples of how our politicians continue to fail us.
They continue to offer more and more social programs and funding for everything.
Yet they fail to do what Government should do, provide basic services such as infrastructure and military.
We all are at fault for allowing these parasitic politicians to feed off of us.
Demand more form your elected officials.
The US employment rate is now around 95%. We are “importing” workers to rebuild Katrina’s devastations, highway projects in Houston, as well as US and Canada oil and gas projects (refineries and pipelines). These are are skilled construction workers: welders, iron workers, electricians, etc.
For existing construction projects (international and domestic),Labor, Steel, and other commodities are in short supply with very long delivery times.
For liberals, it is always: “Throw more taxpayer money at the problem.” However, this highway issue is bigger and longer term, and IT IS NOT GW BUSH’s fault.
Just a silly question.....
Is it the responsibility of the Federal government to maintain these bridges or the local county/city where the bridges are located?
Gotta wonder just how many bridges the $2.2 billion a year we waste on foreign aid to Egypt would build. Or the 150 million a year we send to the terrorists in Gaza. Or the 700 million to Pakistan. Or the 94 million a year we send to India, of all places, land of the growing middle class and outsourcer of jobs.