STRUCTURALLY DEFICIENT PRIORITIES
One year and thirty-five days ago the I35W Bridge in Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River killing 13, injuring 145 and closing a vital transportation artery in the Twin Cities.
The disaster made plain what we in the logistics profession have known for the past eight years. America, under both federal and state government, has permitted, even encouraged a scandalous neglect of our transportation infrastructure which is contributing to our concurrent economic decline.
At least, we surmised, this tragedy would spur America to commit to rebuilding and renewing this infrastructure which is so vital to our economic well being.
Sadly, the usual happy talk we get from governmental leaders again amounted to NATO – “No Action, Talk Only”.
The Associated Press reports little progress in repairing and rehabilitating each state’s twenty most heavily traveled and structurally deficient bridges. Just 10 percent of 1,020 major bridges had their structural defects fixed. Two thirds of the most heavily traveled problem bridges have had zero major work down besides regular maintenance.
President Bush has vowed to veto one billion dollars of a proposed federal increase in infrastructure repair. In Minnesota, the replacement of the I35W replacement is scheduled to open September 15, 100 days ahead of schedule in spite of Gov. Tom Pawlenty, who vetoed a $6.6 billion transportation spending plan. The state legislature overrode Pawlenty’s veto and then fired his transportation commissioner. Minnesota also initiated a $2.5 billion draft bridge improvement plan to replace eleven major spans over the next decade. It will also use new tax revenue to refurbish 120 bridges that lack structural redundancy experts believe led to the I35W collapse. Pawlenty was too busy burnishing his image as a tax cutter to care about infrastucture.
And President Bush? In the 400 days since that structurally deficient bridge dumped doomed commuters into a watery grave, he has squandered $117 billion, not to secure and build up, but to prosecute endlessly a made up, senseless war. In subscribing to the conservative theory that government is the problem, not the solution, he spends every day proving precisely that.
Originally published in the Daily Herald, September 28, 2008
The disaster made plain what we in the logistics profession have known for the past eight years. America, under both federal and state government, has permitted, even encouraged a scandalous neglect of our transportation infrastructure which is contributing to our concurrent economic decline.
At least, we surmised, this tragedy would spur America to commit to rebuilding and renewing this infrastructure which is so vital to our economic well being.
Sadly, the usual happy talk we get from governmental leaders again amounted to NATO – “No Action, Talk Only”.
The Associated Press reports little progress in repairing and rehabilitating each state’s twenty most heavily traveled and structurally deficient bridges. Just 10 percent of 1,020 major bridges had their structural defects fixed. Two thirds of the most heavily traveled problem bridges have had zero major work down besides regular maintenance.
President Bush has vowed to veto one billion dollars of a proposed federal increase in infrastructure repair. In Minnesota, the replacement of the I35W replacement is scheduled to open September 15, 100 days ahead of schedule in spite of Gov. Tom Pawlenty, who vetoed a $6.6 billion transportation spending plan. The state legislature overrode Pawlenty’s veto and then fired his transportation commissioner. Minnesota also initiated a $2.5 billion draft bridge improvement plan to replace eleven major spans over the next decade. It will also use new tax revenue to refurbish 120 bridges that lack structural redundancy experts believe led to the I35W collapse. Pawlenty was too busy burnishing his image as a tax cutter to care about infrastucture.
And President Bush? In the 400 days since that structurally deficient bridge dumped doomed commuters into a watery grave, he has squandered $117 billion, not to secure and build up, but to prosecute endlessly a made up, senseless war. In subscribing to the conservative theory that government is the problem, not the solution, he spends every day proving precisely that.
Originally published in the Daily Herald, September 28, 2008
posted by Walt Zlotow at 7:03 AM
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