Posted on 09/21/2012 11:53:24 PM PDT by LucyT
You can tell a lot about a nation by the condition of the infrastructure. So what does our infrastructure say about us? It says that we are in a very advanced state of decay. At this point, much of America is being held together with spit, duct tape and prayers.
Our roads are crumbling and thousands of our bridges look like they could collapse at any moment. Our power grid is ancient and over a trillion gallons of untreated sewage is leaking from our aging sewer systems each year. Our airports and our seaports are clogged with far more traffic than they were ever designed to carry.
Approximately a third of all of the dam failures that have taken place in the United States since 1874 have happened during the past decade. Our national parks and recreation areas have been terribly neglected and our railroads are a bad joke. "...drinking water systems all over the country are badly outdated.
While the Obama administration is spending more than half a million dollars to figure out why chimpanzees throw poop, our national infrastructure is literally falling apart all around us.
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(Excerpt) Read more at theeconomiccollapseblog.com ...
Just another way to steal money from the tax payers.Government takes your money than builds the infrastructure and then fails to maintain it.
It happens at all levels of government.Afterall they can always get more money right.
Wow. Amazing story. You Ironworkers have no fear. Anyone who thinks they have a tough job should watch what you guys do for a few hours. I’d never survive the climb, I’d be petrified.
While the Obama administration is spending more than half a million dollars to figure out why chimpanzees throw poop,...And 700 million to rebuilt Mosques that had poop backed up in them.
Wouldn't that be the Democrat's version of HEAVEN?? And any sane person's version of HELL??
If you calculate the gallons per hour, you get 0.007 gallons per hour. I've seen estimates that say an idling car uses about a gallon per hour. So, are these cars in traffic jams all turned off 99% of the time?
Am I missing something here or are their numbers seriously wrong?
Well, I can tell you Northfield, MA got new sidewalks for an estimated $1.7 million. Every time I drive through Northfield, I have yet to see anyone walking on the sidewalks.
Let's not forget Hussein's signage...didn't each cost about $1,200? [Small chunks of change compared to the billions spent wasted.
"Shovel Ready was not as 'shovel ready' as we expected"
Some of that is being used to improve the unions' political infrastructure.
In a lot of places it seems the only time a bridge is painted is when it is built. Then 50 years later, it falls down. Each politician puts it off for the next guy to do.
SueRae, I am retired from ironworking. I remember dealing with the fear early on by looking at the men around me and thinking "if that butthead can do it then so can I". Then you are concentrated on the job that is inches in front of you. The fear comes later in life. I don't have many nightmares but when I do it is always my old jobs where thankfully nothing went wrong, but in my nightmares they do go wrong.
Thanks for the replies FRiends. :)
We have no money to spend on projects like this.
All available infrastructure money is already dedicated to constructing and refurbishing mosques in muslim countries around the world.
The Hussein signage that went up in my area is mostly down now.
It seems some people thought the round part resembled a pistol target.
My thoughts on this are as follows:
1. Ansel12 pegged it perfectly in an earlier post on this thread. Our nation's transportation infrastructure hasn't suffered simply because we don't spend enough money on it (that's true), but because our infrastructure is competing with all the other things that comprise our government expenditures. Much of it silly nonsense, and completely unproductive expenditures of public funds.
2. Many of the "solutions" proposed for this problem are either completely impractical or require the application of onerous, overbearing government authority. Regional planning is one area that comes fraught with this kind of risk. As I like to tell people who ask me "when you and your profession are going to fix our traffic problems" ... I can fix any problem related to transportation infrastructure, but in order for me to do it right you are going to have to give me the power to tell you where you will live, tell you where you will work, tell you how many kids you will have, tell you where they can travel, etc. Is that what we really want here?
3. Related to the previous item, I would make the point that transportation infrastructure is one area where inconsistency in policy and overlapping of roles between different levels of governing authority is particularly problematic. I would suggest that much of what "needs to be done" in order to "fix the problem" may well be incompatible with the U.S. Constitution. Something as simple (and commonly accepted) as national highway design and sign standards is a good example of this.
4. In addition to the difficulties associated with different levels of government, there is also the confluence and divergence of roles and responsibilities between the public and private sector in transportation. I'm surprised this article didn't broach this subject, since it relates to two infrastructure elements in particular. What exactly is the government's role in the development and maintenance of airports and maritime infrastructure where the users are private businesses?
5. And speaking of privatization ... We need to have a serious, objective discussion at all levels of government regarding the benefits, risks, and policy considerations for one approach in infrastructure development and maintenance that may be very effective at addressing public needs in a cost-effective manner -- namely, privatization.
6. One last item here is a reference to a great article I read recently on the subject of transportation infrastructure finance that I read recently in a professional publication I receive. Interestingly, the author of this article (an experienced and highly respected engineer, if I remember) suggested that: (a) our problem isn't as serious as it is often portrayed; and (b) groups like the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) that publish these annual "grades" for the nation's infrastructure lose a lot of credibility when they assign a "grade" of D- or F to a system of infrastructure that actually works very well for the American public despite all of its challenges.
These are just a few thoughts of mine on this subject. Flame away, folks!
As one interesting civil engineer once described to a client when discussing this very subject (related to a different matter -- railroad tracks, ties and switches) ... "Let's take an ax, for example. If I replace the ax head after five years and the handle after ten years, then I've replaced the entire ax even though I never bought a new ax!"
That’s what happens when the politicians impose road taxes and other “well meaning” levies on the People, then turn around and steal it from its intended use and give it to folks for “fairness” (not to mention buying votes) instead of using it for its stated intention... It’s not “society” that made it into the disgraceful problem, it’s the politicians.
I don’t know if those number are correct, but you may be misunderstanding what they’re saying. You would only get a 1:1 hours:gallons ratio if the definition of “traffic jams” only includes time spent at a full stop in traffic. Traffic jams can waste a lot of time without “wasting” a lot of fuel because the car that crawls in traffic would be using fuel anyway even if it were operating at full speed.
This must be outdated. Obama has been working on “crumbling roads and bridges” since 2007.
LOL!!!
Lock ‘n load.
The Feds are too busy buying ammunition to protect their agents and to subdue an unruly population that refuses to “redistribute” their wages.
And then we have the unions that are too greedy, pad the bills, pay obscene wages to ghost workers and substitute Chinese steel.
But overall the uppermost reason is to blame the adopted ideology that nobody has the balls to call it openly, that Obama has changed America already into a socialistic society, a Communist country.
And when a country falls to communism so does its infrastructure, because they need to spend too much to subdue and to oppress the people.
I used to travel I-76 in northeastern Colorado frequently from 2002 to 2010. There was the usual construction for rebuilding along it. When the stimulus went into effect, those signs went up on projects that were nearly completed in the prior year. Explanations?
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