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Of bridges and public safety
Aug. 3rd, 2007 04:17 pmReading the coverage of 35W's collapse into the Mississippi on Tuesday, one thing has struck me: Governor Tim Pawlenty is sounding an awful lot like Andrew Speaker, the now-infamous TB patient. I amy be reading too much in-bewtween the lines, but his consistent message has sounded to me like "we knew there was danger, but we didn't think it was dangerous enough to fix before 2020." Kinda sounds like "the CDC told me I had TB, but they never explicitly told me not to travel," doesn't it?
And yeah, it's easy to armchair quarterback over here, but I don't hear either of these men taking responsibility - either for their actions (in Speaker's case) or for what happened on their watch (in Pawlenty's case). Pawlenty has followed a strict program of "No New Taxes", which has helped him get re-elected. I can't help but think that this has contributed to tight state budgets, which means that things like transportation and infrastructure get pushed down the list of priorities, because they're not as sexy as a new Guthrie. I'm also very aware that the federal government hasn't had the money to give to repair the federal highway system, because why? Oh, that's right - we're in a quagmire of a war that was a bad idea to begin with.
About the bridge: It was rated at 50% and deemed "structurally deficient" in 2005, though it was noted that there was no fatigue cracking, and therefore it was not deemed necessary to replace the bridge prematurely. In 2006, it was noted that there were fatigue cracks.
Here's what chaps me the most - apparently, there was no redundancy built into the bridge. That kind of design has no redundancy, and there's a lot more bridges with that design scattered across the midwest. I don't get that. I seriously don't get that. Just because the midwest isn't on the Ring of Fire doesn't mean that there's never earthquakes - to use one example of random geological happenings. What if an F5 tornado ripped through?
Seriously - can anyone explain why you'd build a bridge with no redundant support structure??
Other thoughts:
It's certainly not the only time a bridge has collapsed, nor is it the most deadly time. It is being pointed to as a symbol of our country's aging infrastructure, and I think that's a good comparison. It's going to cost a lot of money and take a lot of time to repair the infrastructure of our highways and bridges. I sincerely don't envy any politician or head engineer stuck with that.
A photoset from someone who lives/lived as close to the bridge as possible.
And yeah, it's easy to armchair quarterback over here, but I don't hear either of these men taking responsibility - either for their actions (in Speaker's case) or for what happened on their watch (in Pawlenty's case). Pawlenty has followed a strict program of "No New Taxes", which has helped him get re-elected. I can't help but think that this has contributed to tight state budgets, which means that things like transportation and infrastructure get pushed down the list of priorities, because they're not as sexy as a new Guthrie. I'm also very aware that the federal government hasn't had the money to give to repair the federal highway system, because why? Oh, that's right - we're in a quagmire of a war that was a bad idea to begin with.
About the bridge: It was rated at 50% and deemed "structurally deficient" in 2005, though it was noted that there was no fatigue cracking, and therefore it was not deemed necessary to replace the bridge prematurely. In 2006, it was noted that there were fatigue cracks.
Here's what chaps me the most - apparently, there was no redundancy built into the bridge. That kind of design has no redundancy, and there's a lot more bridges with that design scattered across the midwest. I don't get that. I seriously don't get that. Just because the midwest isn't on the Ring of Fire doesn't mean that there's never earthquakes - to use one example of random geological happenings. What if an F5 tornado ripped through?
Seriously - can anyone explain why you'd build a bridge with no redundant support structure??
Other thoughts:
It's certainly not the only time a bridge has collapsed, nor is it the most deadly time. It is being pointed to as a symbol of our country's aging infrastructure, and I think that's a good comparison. It's going to cost a lot of money and take a lot of time to repair the infrastructure of our highways and bridges. I sincerely don't envy any politician or head engineer stuck with that.
A photoset from someone who lives/lived as close to the bridge as possible.
