Posted on 04/28/2014 8:24:38 AM PDT by Kaslin
Oh dear, yet another scare story about falling-down bridges. A Washington Post headline today in the hardcopy is “63,000 Bridges Structurally Deficient, U.S. Says.”
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has released its annual data on bridge conditions, and indeed the data show that 63,522 bridges were “structurally deficient” in 2013. That sounds like a lot, but it is out of 607,751 total U.S. bridges.
Here’s what nearly all media stories on this topic gloss over: the share of U.S. bridges that are structurally deficient has been falling steadily for more than two decades. The chart below (based on FHWA data) shows that the share of U.S. bridges that are structurally deficient fell from 22 percent in 1992 to just 10 percent in 2013.
The chart clearly shows good news on the bridge front, but many reporters focus on the bad news angle favored by construction lobby groups.
The WaPo story reflects lobbyist pleas that the states need the federal government to fix their bridges. But why? If Pennsylvania has “the nation’s worst problem,” then the Pennsylvania legislature should find a solution—either reprioritize the state budget, start privatizing bridges, charge bridge tolls, or find other funding sources. No need to look to Washington. Uncle Sam is not Santa Claus.
For more on our (supposedly) crumbling infrastructure, see here, here, here,
Oh wait . . .
Less than 3% of Owe-bama’s Stimulus went for roads and bridges.
Puke.
If the government would stick to legitimate functions like providing infrastructure, we would have perfect bridge and roads.
Geez...
If Only we had a few $trillion dollars of money for “shovel ready” projects- we could have upgraded all our roads and bridges and aging electrical grid...
Shovel ready for more big government intervention are they?
My dog created more shovel ready jobs than bath house barry did with OUR tax money!
Another statistic the media put a lot of hoopla to is bridges that are “functionally obsolete”. This can truly have a host of means, for example if the sidewalk or railing on the bridge doesn’t meet current standards.
So why the hell hasn’t obama fixed them?
He wants to, but the evil Republicans won't let him.
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