Little progress made in bridge repairs across US

[marmar]

AP, via NY Times:



Little progress made in bridge repairs across US

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 31, 2008
Filed at 6:31 a.m. ET

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A year after the worst U.S. bridge collapse in a generation brought calls for immediate repairs to other spans, two of every three of the busiest problem bridges in each state -- carrying nearly 40 million vehicles a day -- have had no work beyond regular maintenance.

An Associated Press review of repairs on each state's 20 most-traveled bridges with structural deficiencies found just 12 percent have been fixed. In most states, the most common approach was to plan for repairs later rather than fix problems now.

The bridges reviewed by the AP -- 1,020 in all -- are not in imminent danger of collapse, state engineers and highway officials say. But the officials acknowledge the structures need improvement, many sooner rather than later.

The collapse of the eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge into the Mississippi River on Aug. 1, 2007, killed 13 people and brought immediate calls for repairs to bridges across the nation.

The failure to follow through was not because of lack of effort, officials said. Soaring construction costs, budget shortages, election-year politics, a backlog of bridge projects, competing highway repairs and bureaucracy often held bridge work to only incremental progress.

The AP gathered information on repair status from 48 states and Washington, D.C. In six states, data could not be obtained for some locally owned bridges. Louisiana and Nevada failed to respond. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Nations-Bridges-One-Year-Later.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[malaise]

1. What about the money being wasted on the Iraq

invasion and occupation that could have been used to repair bridges.

[Atman]

2. This is actually part of BushCo's evil plan to privatize America's infrastructure

When we're putting our cars in the shop every other month for front-end work -- or worse, when we're plummeting off collapsing bridges -- Americans will finally demand that something be done. But we're flat broke, even worse than broke. So, selling off our roads and bridges to European corporations (and friends of George) will be the only way out. Wait for it. It's coming.

.