Minnesota I35W: Infrastructure and Republicans on the Bridge of Treason

This is not going to be the last word on bridges, infrastructure, the Minnesota I35W bridge collapse and the Republican treason and conspiracy to weaken this nation which, unfortunately, includes too many Democratic fellow-travelers. They managed to do what Soviet Communism could never do: weaken the infrastructure of this nation and in turn, erode domestic defense and undermine our economy.

We must be vigilant. Newt Gingrich lead the assault on our nation from Washington thirteen years ago, and George W. Bush and his cronies carry on the erosive legacy today. Now there are conspirators and fellow-travelers in the Wisconsin legislature committed to do the same - destroy our roads and schoolhouses. They are bent upon destroying us from within.

On October 12, 2005, I posted, Fix the bridges and the dams.

The day after Katrina hit, I told Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, "A right-wing government that strangles public expenditures for public works is largely responsible for what happened in New Orleans." (Katrina Compounded, Sept. 1, 2005)

Of course, I was referencing Grover Norquist's infamous, and modestly shocking, assertion that he wanted to "shrink government down to the point where it can be strangled in a bathtub." The surprise was not Norquist's candor. The shock was to millions of voters who discovered the implications one stormy day...

...Of course, I love the excuse that even if we put more money into public works, how would we stop the pork and the log rolling for pet projects. Frankly, any member of Congress who uses that lame excuse ought to resign. If they can't figure it out, they aren't doing their job. Or maybe they only need to turn to the American Society of Civil Engineers 2003 Report Card on U.S.infrastructure (PDF).

They could start with the 190,000 bridges that are unsafe. Or maybe a few thousand dams.

A month ago, I wrote: Republican Treason on the Highways of America

Whether for military purposes or healthy commerce, our transportation system is vital to the future prosperity of this country. We can argue about the balance between rail, rubber tire vehicles, and air, but regardless of the mode, maintaining a transportation system is vital to this nation.

Three weeks ago I wrote: New York City: Another Disaster Brought by Republicans

This country was built on investment, investment in infrastructure. Urban residents paid to help bring rural electrification to the farms. Easterners paid for dams that watered the western plains. City resident paid for highways that opened up the suburbs. Rural folks helped pay for lands given to the railroads that brought agricultural goods to the cities.

Now the Republicans are making sure that no one pays. Roads are deteriorating, schools are firetraps and unable to provide reliable Internet connections, airports are inadequate to handle the demands of modern day air traffic, sewage and water systems are strained...

...The reports warning about the pending crisis are brought by the American Society of Civil Engineers, (ASCE) not your most liberal  Kos-reading, Clinton-loving, acid-dropping, sandal-wearing, Volvo-driving, band of followers of Abbie Hoffman, Doctor Spock, and Little Sally. 

ASCE estimates that $1.6 trillion is needed over a five-year period to bring the nation's infrastructure to a good condition.

Cost of the war in Iraq, from the New York Times: What $1.2 Trillion Can Buy

Comments

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why the ancient Romans could build bridges that lasted longer than ours do?

[Paul]

They did not salt their roads and bridges. Sometimes they used better materials.

[Anonymous]

Paul - I think it's because we have a bridge industry that relies on repeat business.

[truth investigator]

Maybe Doyle should not have raided $1 Billion from transportation to give to WEAC.

[Kay]

Anonymous, the Roman empire was famed for maintaining its infrastructure. Then some bridges were maintained by the Brits and others, because they were historic -- not that they let semitrailers drive on 'em.

But ask any archaeologist: A lot of Roman bridges are gone, and many began to crumble along with the empire. There's a lesson in that for us.

[Anonymous]

Kay - Hi, We know Rome built most roads and bridges because of military campaigns. My wife recently went to Prague and walk across the bridge built by a Roman Emperor and toured his castle. That was about (est.) 1,800 years ago these were built. The Minneapolis bridge was only about 50 years old and our engineering and technology supposedly is superior. Thanks, but it still looks like it was engineered for repeat business to me.

If a bridge like the Minneapolis bridge cost $50 million and only last 50 years, we should maybe have leasing arrangements with bridge companies that could maybe prevent these types of problems.

I think we should bring back slavery, and have slaves and prisoners build the nonrepeat business all of you are nostalgic for.td

[Ed Green]

The repeat business concept is on target. This bridge was only 40 (not 50) years old. The Rolling Stones have stayed together longer than this marvel of 'value engineering'!

I heard this on a CNN report this week, from an expert in the history of bridge design: The assumed useful life of these bridges put up in the first 20 years of building the Interstate system was, I kid you not, 25 YEARS.

These guys seriously thought it was reasonable to expect that all these bridges would simply be replaced about as often as you would re-shingle the roof on your house. Even if you forgive their apparent belief in endless post-war prosperity, how did they ever imagine that people would put up with the massive disruption of actually doing this to all the hundreds of these bridges in a fairly short period of time? Maybe they wanted to punish their kids for the long hair, war protests and listening to that awful music by the Rolling Stones. . .

Well, I guess you showed US.