Here in Washington on Monday nights during the summer, the National Mall becomes an open-air movie theater. Thousands of office workers descend on the Mall with picnics and friends to watch free classic movies under the stars. This is by far one of my favorite summer activities because it’s a couple hours of escapism right outside my door. Last night however, my thoughts turned to (what else?) infrastructure as we watched the original 1978 Superman.

If you will recall, as Clark Kent begins to find his way as Superman, evildoer Lex Luthor hatches a dubious real estate scheme which involves chopping off the western half of the country at the San Andreas Fault via an earthquake. As death and destruction occur, the film focuses in on the infrastructure to demonstrate how cataclysmic this event is – roads buckle, the Golden Gate Bridge begins to snap cable by cable, and the Hoover Dam fails. While these failures are unlikely and done for dramatic effect – they do illustrate how vital well-maintained infrastructure is to our public health and safety.

So obviously Superman swoops in, saves the day, flies around the world really fast backwards to turn back time, and all is right with the world again. But that’s just a movie. What about in real life? Do we have our own super man (or woman) who can save the day when we do face an infrastructure collapse? The sad answer is - probably not.

Age, delayed maintenance, and lack of investment are what cause the physical problems of the infrastructure, but it’s the lack of compelling political leadership on the issue that has brought us to a status quo of neglect. Only great leadership will bring us back to where we need to be. In the meantime, we need to push our policymakers to be that kind of leader. ASCE’s Infrastructure Champions program seeks to mine the combined wisdom of our membership for best practices and local leadership on critical infrastructure protection, security, and resiliency from the effects of multihazards. By identifying our infrastructure’s key vulnerabilities, we can take steps to prevent disaster and protect public health.

In one of the most famous scenes in Superman, Lois Lane first meets Superman when he saves her from falling off the Daily Planet building. Superman tells her that it’s alright, he’s got her, to which she exclaims, “You’ve got me! Who’s got you?” Sometimes I wonder who’s “got” us on infrastructure. ASCE and its members are working hard to educate elected officials and the public about the sorry state of our nation’s infrastructure, but we can only do so much. We need someone who can stand up and fight for truth, justice, the American way and infrastructure. Red cape optional.

Today marks the one year anniversary of the I-35 W Bridge collapse in Minneapolis, MN, when thirteen people lost their lives when the structurally deficient bridge tumbled into the Mississippi River. While the bridge has been replaced in record time, and work on Capitol Hill is underway to fix the nation’s deficient bridges, the problem is far from solved.

Immediately following the collapse, Rep. James Oberstar of Minnesota and Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, introduced the National Highway Bridge Reconstruction and Inspection Act (H.R. 3999) to provide $1 billion for immediate re-inspection of deficient bridges and to introduce new technologies into bridge inspection and monitoring. All good things. ASCE supports the legislation and advocated for its passage, which just happened last week. On the Senate side, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, also of Minnesota, just introduced the companion bill which will hopefully make it through the process quickly.

Despite the bill’s progress, bad news came in the form of a recent report from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). The report, "Bridging the Gap: Restoring and Repairing the Nation's Bridges" pegs the cost of fixing the nation’s deficient bridges at a staggering $140 billion. Beyond just the cost, AASHTO advises better monitoring of deficient bridges, better public education on the risks and needs, and a stronger federal role in the rehabilitation of the nation’s aging transportation network – not just its bridges.

The 2005 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure graded the nation’s bridges at a "C" – one of the highest grades for any of the categories, and since that time, the percent of structurally deficient or functionally obsolete bridges has actually declined. It’s hard to believe that despite those facts, we experienced such a catastrophic failure. It’s true, events like the I-35 W collapse are rare, but they demonstrate the risks of an aging and inadequately maintained national infrastructure. If something that was doing the best fell apart so badly, what are the consequences of the next failure?

For more information on the state of the nation’s bridges, CBS Evening News did a great story last night. Watch it here.