As a resident of Minnesota who is contemplating the one year anniversary today of the 35W bridge tragedy, I wanted to diary the state of things as my own version of remembrance.
Today our state is honoring the victims by holding several memorial events, halting construction on the nearly completed, round-the-clock work that is happening on our new 35W bridge, and tolling all the bells in the state at 6:05pm, the time of the collapse.
Over the last year since the 35W collapse, Minnesota has seen numerous bridges close, some temporarily, some permanently, due to structural deficiencies. One bridge that was permanently closed is just a few miles from the 35W bridge, and cannot be rebuilt until 2011. Another bridge recently dropped debris upon oncoming traffic a few weeks ago, also just a few miles from the 35W bridge.
(For the not-so-faint-of-heart, you can even look into the number of bridges that are rated structurally deficient in your state.)
Today I read again with frustration a follow-up article on CNN about the lack of any progress on addressing the problems with the bridges in the US.
Across the United States, there are about 600,000 bridges. The Federal Highway Administration reported in 2006 that one quarter of the nation's bridges were at risk. The American Society for Civil Engineers said in 2006 that it would cost nearly $10 billion every year for the next two decades to fix them.
But the funds used to repair and maintain the country's bridges and highways are drying up. Some of the money comes from the Highway Trust Fund, which Americans pay for through taxes on gasoline. Faced with higher gas prices, more commuters are carpooling, taking mass transit or driving less, about 4 percent less in May alone compared with a year ago.
The federal Department of Transportation predicted taxes will fall far short of what's needed for improvement projects -- leaving many projects delayed or even canceled.
Ryan Toohey, a lead strategist with America Moving Forward, a group that lobbies for private investment to fix the nation's infrastructure problems, said nearly every state is facing a budget crisis and doesn't have the money to solve problems.
"When I hear that many states have close to a majority of their bridges deemed obsolete or structurally deficient, that scares me and I think that finding ways to help remedy those problems that simultaneously relieve states of the burden financially is very, very important and should be a welcome trend in the United States," Toohey said.
The Bush administration projected that at some point in the next fiscal year, after October 1, 2008, the highway account will hit zero, down from $8 billion at the start of the fiscal year. Payments for repairs can't be made if the money isn't there.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said, "Without a doubt, our federal approach to transportation is broken" and "it is time for a new, a different and a better approach."
And so it goes; our country continues to pour billions of dollars every month into Iraq (rebuilding another country, yet not our own), our own state pours millions of dollars into building new stadiums for the local millionaires, and we sit idly by while our nation crumbles under our feet. Our government has failed us. We are literally fiddling while Rome burns.