First the New Orleans levees, and now the Minneapolis I-35W bridge.
Blame the engineers or blame the politicians, but this stuff is not supposed to happen.
Associated Press via International Herald Tribune: Tens of thousands of U.S. bridges rated deficient; repair costs estimated in the billions (August 2, 2007)
More than 70,000 bridges across America are rated structurally deficient like the span that collapsed in Minneapolis, and engineers estimate repairing them all would take at least a generation and cost more than $188 billion (€137.59 billion).
That works out to at least $9.4 billion (€6.88 billion) a year over 20 years, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Separately, the Federal Highway Administration has said addressing the backlog of needed bridge repairs would cost at least $55 billion (€40.25 billion). That was five years ago, with expectations of more deficiencies to come.
It is money that Congress, the federal government and the states have so far been unable or unwilling to spend.
Wow, $188 billion over more than a generation. Sounds grim. But this comes on the heels of
NBC4: Taxpayers Could Face $1 Trillion War Tab (August 1, 2007)
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost American taxpayers $1 trillion, according to the most recent projections made by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Robert A. Sunshine, CBO assistant director for budget analysis, testified about the figures befopre the House Budget Committee on Tuesday.
His office researched the costs of the wars in two different scenarios. In the first scenario, personnel deployed on the ground for the war on terrorism would be reduced from the 2007 average of about 210,000 to 30,000 by the beginning of 2010 and then remain at that level through 2017, Sunshine said.
Under those conditions, the cost would range from about $481 billion to $603 billion.
In the second scenario, the number of personnel deployed would decline more gradually, from an average of 210,000 in 2007 to 75,000 by the start of 2013 and then remain at that level through 2017, he said.
In that case, the wars could cost taxpayers $924 billion to $1,010 billion.
The solution is simple: the Democrats, who are in control of Congress, should pass an Act transferring $243 billion from Dubya's war budget to an Infrastructure Fund to be used to repair all bridges and highways, and let Bush veto that.
I mean, while America's infrastructure is left to rot through lack of public investment, making everyone unsafe, the country is spending a trillion on blowing shit up and killing people in far away places. This is 4 times as much as it would cost to repair all the road and bridge infrastructure in the country. And it is public spending. And it is not making the world any safer.
If labour is an issue, there are 150 thousand Americans killing, and being killed, and blowing shit up in places far away, who could be usefully employed at home.