So about a year ago ASCE, that's American Society of Civil Engineers, published in their magazine and acticle about the infrastructure crisis in the united states. Here's a link to the article/magazine. http://pubs.asce.org/magazines/CEMag/2008/Issue_01-08/article1.htm Anyways this all came about with the callapse of the interstate 35W bridge collapse. Remember on August 1, 2007 when that Minniapolis bridge over the Missippi collapsed in Minnisota and killed 13 and injured more than 100 others. That's alot of M's. This bridge like many other bridges in the U.S has been insificiant for years but really nothing is done about these bridges. Partially to do with the rating system for bridges which is really weird. If I remember this bridge was rated a few months before the collapse and had a relatively decent rating in comparison to other bridges in the U.S. for example the Brooklyn Bridge has like a 2 out of 100. I don't get it either. The other problem is the fact that infrastructure has not been a national priority."From 1950 to 1970, for example, the United States devoted 3 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to infrastructure spending; since 1980, however, spending on infrastructure has been cut by a third, to just 2 percent of GDP" What do you expect to happen to these bridges when we don't have money to maintain and upkeep them? Alot of Americas bridges are 40 to 50 years old built for society at that time. Anymore these bridges are not ment to handle what we do to them today. You would think we would devote more effort to infrasture because it so greatly impacts our economy and public health, but no. Anyways the article goes more indepth about other aspects like avaition and dams and what have you. I do hear however that Obama plans to devote of his 787 billion economic stimulus package 46billion to transportation and mass transit projects, 31billion to modernize federal buildings, and 6 billion in water projects which is awesome. Hopefully this gets put into use soon because I don't know if you've heard but the job market these days isn't so great, even for civil engineers.
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I know that since the bridge collapse in Minn. There has been a lot of talk about our infrastructure crumbling. I think that part of the problem is where to get money from to fix it. In Ohio we spend a lot of money to have all of our bridges inspected, I believe every two years, and repaired. I know I do not want my federal dollars going to a state that should be taking care of their own bridges.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me think about how it would work to privatize more roads, including bridges. That way the people who use it would pay for it and the owner would have an interest in keeping the roads up to date and the bridges safe. In my experience private toll roads are usually better maintained then public interstates.