Tis a commentary about the state of USian infrastructure. I had read a couple of years back about bridges in the USA not being uopgraded and repaired do to federal government funding cuts because of the endless wars and massive deficit incurred.

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Well, that sure didn't take long...

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Remind made a valid point, and it would be just as valid if it were Canada. Have a talk with the people in New Orleans and then come back with your roll eyes disdain. It is no joke for those living there and other places where bridges and crucial levees were not upgraded and repaired.

The bridge was apparently inspected twice in the last two years and it passed inspection. So, either something recently has happened to the bridge's integrity or the inspections were not done properly.

It reminds me of the earthquake in San Francisco about 15 years ago when portions of the double-decker bridge (the Bay Bridge) collapsed. My sister lived in the Bay Area at the time. She was driving my brother back from the airport and had a choice of taking either the Bay Bridge or the San Mateo Bridge back home (the choices were equidistant). As it turned out, she chose the San Mateo Bridge and she was on that bridge when the earthquake happened. Just dumb luck.

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Originally posted by Stargazer:
Remind made a valid point, and it would be just as valid if it were Canada. Have a talk with the people in New Orleans and then come back with your roll eyes disdain. It is no joke for those living there and other places where bridges and crucial levees were not upgraded and repaired.

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Obviously you didn't read the post very carefully. Otherwise, how do you square your comment:

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people's right to safety are being eroded because our money is being spent on things we never signed up for.

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Maybe Americans will stand and stop identifying themselves as war mongers and get their home affairs in order?

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There's a world of difference between 'things we never signed up for' and implying that all Americans are 'war mongers' who have purposely ignored domestic problems.

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it will cost $9.4 billion a year for 20 years to eliminate all bridge deficiencies. Long-term underinvestment is compounded by the lack of a Federal transportation program.

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Originally posted by ghoris:
There's a world of difference between 'things we never signed up for' and implying that all Americans are 'war mongers' who have purposely ignored domestic problems.

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Haven't they?

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I'm sorry, but I still saw this as a case of someone seeing a tragedy and immediately having a knee-jerk reaction of blaming Americans for being 'warmongers' and essentially saying 'you got what you deserved'.

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Actually, there is a world of difference between what was said and what you are trying to infer.

My point was they need to refocus their gaze upon their country which is falling apart, as opposed to allegedly trying to fix other country's problems, while really spending trillions to destroy them.

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The DOT statement then retracts the absolute nature of that statement, qualifying that, "The Department of Transportation will continue to cooperate with the State transportation departments in the I-35 corridor as they upgrade this vital interstate highway to meet 21st century needs. However, these efforts are the routine activities of a Department that cooperates with all the state transportation departments to improve the Nation's intermodal transportation network."

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Originally posted by Stockholm:
We had a highway overpass collapse outside of Montreal recently killing four people, so obviously there are plenty of infrastructure problems in Canada too.

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This came to mind when I was watching the Minneapolis bridge collapse coverage the other night, when they said the bridge was 40 years old. I think the overpass in Quebec was about the same age.

And it seems to me that much of our infrastructure was built during the 50's and 60's.

One report had engineers pointing out that those bridges are now carrying more traffic than original design specifications called for.

And there is my pet hypothesis that the increased desire for safety has us putting loads more salt on reinforced concrete and steel girder structures than the original designers planned for.

Put the increased traffic loads and increased corrosion together, and the original lifespans of these bridges might be significantly reduced.

In London, Ontario, work has been underway on the Highbury ave and Adelaide street overpasses that soar over the CN rail yards.

This spring some mysterious work was done on the cement pillars that support the Quebec street overpass that elevates one over the CP yard.

Back some years ago, when I was still ridding my ten speed to work, I hit the Quebec street overpass. The bridge had slipped at the expansion joint, leaving a four inch "bump" as the warning sign euphamised.

If you walk under the bridge that connects Queen's ave with Riverside, right at the Forks, one can see deep cracks in the cement. Not being an engineer, I don't know if they are significant or not.