Friday, 1 August 2008
One Year Anniversary of the Minneapolis Bridge Collapse – Where are we?
« Love Amongst the Infrastructure | Main | We Need an Infrastructure Superman »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.