Thousands Of Bridges To Nowhere

MayorBob.

Posted to Etcetera on Wed Jul 30, 2008 at 01:03:44 PM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

If you're driving on Pennsylvania roads and you're crossing a bridge, there's almost a 50-50 chance the bridge you're on is in really bad repair. As a matter of fact, if you use a bridge anywhere in the US there's a one in four chance of that. Those are the facts contained in a report recently released regarding the basic distressed state of US transportation infrastructure. Like everything else, the report paints the picture of a crisis -- a crisis it will take a lot of money to fix.

Last year, the final report of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission drew a picture of a national transportation system deeply stressed and in need of immediate attention. Now the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) has released Bridging The Gap (pdf doc) which focuses on the sorry state of the nation's bridges. The report was issued just before the anniversary of the I-35 bridge collapse in Minnesota, an accident that cost 13 lives and 140 injuries. The AASHTO report said that the Highway Trust Fund is seriously underfunded and, because most of its revenues flow from gas taxes, it's about to become even more so as motorists cut back on driving due to increasing fuel costs. The report pegged the total cost to fix the nation's bridges at about (US)$140 billion.

That money would go to fix 152,000 of the nation's 600,000 bridges. Those 152,000 bridges have been designated as "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete" (pg 29 of AASHTO report). Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell said the federal government should pony up the money to do the deed. In essence, the states can't do it on their own. So, where would the federal government come up with $140 billion? According to Rendell, if the $140 billion sounded familiar, it was because that was the annual tab for fighting the war in Iraq. As if any additional evidence was needed about the critical nature of the situation, a 1,200 pound piece of the old I-35 bridge fell in to the Mississippi as if to say "hurry up."