I’m just wondering how Bill O’Reilly is gonna’ blame the bridge collapse on the left-wing media and Hillary Clinton.
Congress controls Highway Administration funding.
Congress is controlled by Democrats right now.
Easy, see?
OTOH, if his sniping can get some more money cracked loose for highway maintenance, that wouldn’t be a bad thing, and I’d tollerate a fair degree of partisan sniping if that’s what’s needful to get the funds.
[Moderating]
Dinsdale, please refrain from political comments such as this in GQ. If you want to comment about Iraq, there are plenty of other places for it.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Allow me to translate… Stop before coming to bridge, make sure no one else is coming the opposite way, and proceed to put the pedal to the metal and don’t stop until you’re safely on the other side. 
Yeah, the “repairs” were basically just resurfacing, fixing the potholes.
But the bridge was only 40 years into an expected lifespan of 70-75 years. They weren’t planning to replace it “sometime in the next 10-15 years” (unless they needed to expand it because of the traffic). And it probably would have been used beyond the 2030’s despite the ‘expected lifespan’ – look at the I-35/Crosstown bridges just a few miles south of this – they are many years beyond their expected lifespan, but are still in use.
I do that. Wouldn’t surprise me if more people are speeding across bridges for awhile. I wonder how fast I need to be going to get airborne, if I need to get airborne. 
Surely someone else must remember the debate over the Surface Transportation Bill in '04/'05. The Bush administration wanted to keep spending at a certain level, but finally settled of a number a few billion above that, although considerable less than what was asked for. During this period, Bush made a statement the he considered infrastucture to be an “entitlement” issue, which I found rather astonishing. I don’t know that the reduction in spending in the Surface Transportation Act of 2005 affected any planned structural repair on this particular bridge, but I do recall the issue of deficient bridges being a point of contention in the debates.
At times when I’m on one of those soaring freeway interchange ramps 50 or 60 ft high I think, “Bad time for an earthquake.”
If the bridge was actually scheduled for replacement in 10 years or so they should be startig the planning now.
I have never quite understood finding fatigue cracks in structures and then not doing anything. It’s clear to me that the structure wasn’t designed to survive the level of continued load reversals that it is undergoing. Fatigue cracks are failures to my mind.
Any structural or civil engineers around to straighten me out?
I’d just like to add that it can be difficult to get a bridge replaced before a collapse.
In my area, like just about every other, we have deteriorating bridges and regular inspections. A couple years ago an inspector insisted on shutting down a heavily used bridge near a mall and businesses and on a route used by thousands to get from point A to point B. Said it was unsafe, in danger of imminent collapse, not even safe to walk on.
People SCREAMED! Oh my god - what about the businesses, the people who had to get to work, didn’t he knew what would happen to the mall and that’s vital business and income and taxes, and where would the truck traffic go and it’s so inconvenient to detour…
Well, the local authorities stuck to their guns (despite threats of being voted out of office), the bridge was closed, and the structure completely replaced. There are people who still bitch about what they view as the unnecessary inconvenience. :rolleyes:
So yes, there are bridges that need major work and/or replacing. And the can be replaced before a big accident - usually over screaming, frothing-at-the-mouth protests.
The bridge I worry about now is the “nine span bridge” over a trainyard in my area - they’ve permanently reduced it from two lanes either direction to one and keep promising it will be replaced… and there are people screaming about that one, too, and lobbying to have it fully reopened to traffic. :rolleyes:
People are idiots. Freakin’ idiots.
Actually, I interpreted Dudley Garrett’s post as wondering which specific bridges are deficient. You can try calling your state DOT, you might get someone cool who will send you a spreadsheet or you might have to fill out a FOIA.
A lot of people get unnecessarily spooked by the term “structurally deficient”. Please don’t. It’s a classification used for apportionment among the states and for HBP funding eligibility. It does NOT mean the structure is unsafe. We can and do lower the posted load limits when conditions warrant. But sometimes bridges can be structurally deficient, look quite ghastly, and still be able to carry legal loads. And despite what you hear even from people that should know better, it doesn’t necessarily mean the bridge needs urgent repairs. Some bridges in benign environments can have say a deck rated 4 for many years and be perfectly adequate for their use.
Yeah, I keep seeing this statistic quoted
but I’ve yet to find a list.
Okey dokey.
Would it be forum-appropriate, then, for me to observe that our nation’s crumbling infrastructure is not a new problem, yet the powers-that-be have consistently chosen to ignore it to fling money in countless other directions instead. And that in a matter of months if not weeks it will again recede below the consciousness of just about everyone other than a bunch of Minnesotans whose commute will be messed up for some time to come.
I don’t believe FHWA publishes any sort of list. But they could generate one for you based on the NBI data that the states submit to it. Bear in mind if you ever do get one that it is somewhat dynamic and changes as work is done and/or inspection data comes in. If you submitted a FOIA request you’d get what you wanted, though they would have the right to charge you.
Yeah but … small fatigue cracks tell me that that particular area is overstressed by repeated load reversal. Fatigue cracks have sharp points which are stress raisers. It seems to me that knowing that there is an overstressed point that has begun to fail and do nothing is a form of Russian Roulette. And a particularly bad form of that. I spin the cylinder and hand you the gun.
The 25% figure seems to be derived from the Bi-Annual Infrastructure Report Card prepared by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Here’s what they said about bridges in the 2005 Report :
If you’re interested in your local conditions, the ASCE Report Card breaks it down by state: Infrastructure by State
D’oh! :smack:
Please excuse my thick-headedness, Dudley.
Sounds about right.
Yep, and when the bridges collapse, you will hear from those same people about how the bridges were neglected and it is all the gov’ments fault.
No problem. Although your link wasn’t precisely what I was looking for, it was interesting (and puzzling) nonetheless.
It is not an accident. When taxes are cut ,services and maintenance are cut. The results are predictable. It all results in privatization. I hate to tell you guys the future. Indiana just sold 157 miles of toll road to a Spanish and Australian consortium.
Toll Road Sale: An irrevocable 75 year tax increase - A Citizen's Guide to Indiana That is the plan.