More infrastructure fun

[Big E]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25956395/

When the I-35W bridge collapsed a year ago in Minneapolis, federal officials immediately requested an emergency inspection of every similar bridge in the nation. There was just one problem: No one knew how many there were.

At first, officials thought there were 756 steel deck truss bridges like the one that fell. That's how many they found in the official federal database of bridges, the National Bridge Inventory, which gets its records from the states. Then state engineers found 32 more to add to the list.

But when states started the inspections, they found that 280 of the bridges weren't steel deck trusses at all — including 13 bridges made of wood timbers. Another 16 no longer existed; a bridge in Pennsylvania had been closed in 1982. Another 11 were private bridges, not subject to federal inspection. One in New Mexico was a pedestrian bridge. And a Maryland bridge had been double counted; it was actually in Pennsylvania.

By the time the survey was finished, the count of bridges of the same type as the Minneapolis span was down to 479, 277 fewer than initially reported, according to internal e-mails from the Federal Highway Administration received Thursday by msnbc.com under the Freedom of Information Act.

Read this article. It would be hilarious if it wasn't for all the people that died because of this stupidity.

[Big E]

Omaha-area road work lags growth in traffic

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2 ... d=10410443

Despite a warning four years ago from planners about traffic congestion, not much has been done to fund extra road construction. If anything, sections of the area's road system are in worse health today, the planners said.

Omaha also expanded its $35 wheel tax to include suburban residents. The additional money, however, is being used for street maintenance, not new street construction.

Make the developers that build all this garbage miles from everything else foot the bill up front in their construction costs. That will stop sprawl over night.

[CapitalGuy]

That will stop sprawl over night

And economic growth. Then everyone will be happy. I guess.

[StreetsOfOmaha]

I can't believe the powers that be still think that road expansion will alleviate traffic congestion... :? :(

[Big E]

Prove how sprawl is necessary for economic growth, CapitalGuy. While yes, it has the immediate impact that we all know and love and can't possibly live without God-forbid I ever brought it up, in the long term it is a drag - ie, the increased tax base required simply to maintain the roads, and the $2 trillion needed over the next 20 years referenced in the Time article.

When gas hits $10 (not if, when) or more, watch what happens. We saw/are seeing the beginning at $4.

[DTO Luv]

You think by now people would see the 10 lane interstates in Houston and LA and realize "Hmm, more lanes aren't really working." It's going to take something drastic, maybe even devastating for people realize that driving and all it's up keep isn't going to be realistic for everyone.

[Big E]

http://www.journalstar.com/news/busines ... 908714.txt

It’s the dark side of the booming global demand for U.S. corn, wheat and soybeans. The surge in exports is revealing inefficiencies in the country’s railways, highways and rivers that carry the grain that helps feed the world. And those bottlenecks are costing farmers, shippers and ultimately consumers millions of dollars a year.

Interesting read.

[Big E]

Poor infrastructure fails America, civil engineers report

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/28/infras ... index.html

The American Society of Civil Engineers issued an infrastructure report card Wednesday giving a bleak cumulative ranking of D.

"We've been talking about this for many many years," Patrick Natale, the group's executive director, told CNN.

"We really haven't had the leadership or will to take action on it. The bottom line is that a failing infrastructure cannot support a thriving economy."

And they're not just talking about endless roads to the burbs:

Drinking water, D-. "America's drinking water systems face an annual shortfall of at least $11 billion to replace aging facilities," the report said. "Leaking pipes lose an estimated seven billion gallons of clean drinking water a day."

[Stargazer]

I don't believe the Minneapolis I-35W bridge is a good example however, as the collapse was found to have been caused by a design flaw... which doomed it from day one. Not to say there aren't plenty of other examples of infrastructure undermined by age/neglect.

[ricko]

Yes, but it was a "structurally deficient" design flaw that was known to the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Minnesota D.O.T. since 1990. It had been rated near the bottom of federal inspection ratings nationwide (bottom 4%), but deemed still safe. Heavy construction equipment on the bridge at the time of the collapse evidently proved to be the tipping-point, but officials knew of its diminished weight bearing capacity (because of the design flaw) at the time and chose to ignore the danger and blow it off. Regardless, I think that financial considerations, and some serious finger-crossing, played a role.