In the mid-to-late 1980s, there were many stories about bridges falling apart, roads crumbling into dust, water and sewer systems overburdened, etc. Massive public spending was predicted to be necessary to fix it all, possibly bankrupting the U.S.
Today? Not so much, not by a long shot. Was all that money spent, and I just didn’t notice? Did we spend just enough on stop-gap or band-aid solutions that it’s not a big deal anymore? Was our “crumbling national infrastructure” overhyped to begin with, or has something else happened in the last 20 years or so?
I don’t recall the exact percentage, but a significant number of highway bridges have been found unsafe, many have been posted at reduced load limits for heavy trucks. There are many “at grade” rail crossings that should have been addressed years ago. Bush made the statement that he consider the, recently passed, highway bill a part of “entitlements” spending???
Our rail system has been neglected for many years, resulting in far too many long haul trucks on the roads, adding to their deterioration.
We should have dramatically increased fuel taxes 30 years ago. This would have served to increase inner city development of housing and in turn shopping and other business activity. It would have dramatically slowed urban sprawl, resulted in smaller, more efficient cars, more efficient mass transportation systems and drastically reduced urban blight.
Your question just touches on the tip of a political iceberg, many local jurisdictions, across the country, are dealing w/ these problems, but there has been very little planning addressed on the national level.
States want to increase fuel taxes by 5-10 cents a gallon and voters rebel, but prices jump 70-80% percent over a few months and people just shrug their shoulders.
Bosda, no offense, but that was a very silly response. That levee had had work done on it for a very long time. It now appears that it was simply not built properly. But there was certainly enough money and time to work on it; it was simply the lack of any accountability in Louisiana.
I have no objection to higher gasoline taxes if they are returned to the construction and maintenance of streets, highways, and bridges.
However, we have several bridges over the Missouri River here in Eastern Nebraska that everyone agrees are overdue for replacement but instead of getting these bridges replaced State,local, and county governments divert money to bike paths. Another boondoggle for which they are seeking federal pork is a $47Million footbridge over the Missouri near the new Qwest Center arena in Omaha.
Raise the gas tax 30 or 40 cents, but put it into the roads and nowhere else.
Lately there have been numerous cave-ins of early-1900s-era water and sewer lines in Omaha. In the small-minded Omaha-wannabee town I live in, most of the stuff in my end of town dates back to the days of the construction of a WW2 aircraft factory that became Offutt Air Force Base and there is no comprehensive plan for orderly replacement–just “crisis maintenance”. I’d gladly pay surcharges for water and sewer if someone competent would administer the funds. (Our City Council’s "austerity budget "allows for golf course purchases but no infrastructure improvements.)
The 1980’s had a lot of stuff that seems to have disappeared. Remember the hoards of normal people that were reported to be homeless through one litlle turn of bad luck. Supposedly, the streets were filled with homeless people that were once middle-class and had no history of mental illness or drug or alcohol addiction. Cries were done to do something and then, one day, they were gone.
There was also the matter of “thousands” of kids being abducted by strangers. Made for TV movies showed us kids being swept into cars by the by the dozens. The odds seemed to be about 1 in 100 that a given child would disappear forever just by going outside without an adult guard.
Then there was the matter of Satan Worshipers. They lurked in wooded areas eveywhere, killed pets, and turned unstable teenagers to the dark side.
These weren’t just urban legends. The news and TV shows covered these topics over and over just like the crumbling infrastructure. I don’t think the 1980’s will ever been known as the age of facts and reason. You would think that we would have had enough to worry about with MAD with the Soviet Union being a very real threat.
This is incredibly inaccurate and stupid. A bridge can be structurally deficient (SD) and not be posted. It can be posted and not be SD. Functionally Obsolete (FO) bridges have less geometric clearances and/or hydraulic capacity than current standards, but are not “unsafe” for vehicular traffic. FO status has nothing to do with load capacity. Looks like some planner wrote that article without consulting a bridge engineer.
Better still they should be put into new rail transit systems, so we don’t need to buy so much gasoline and the streets and highways don’t get so much wear and tear.
Not implausible, but do you have a cite? I seem to recall there was some money slated for strengthening the levees a couple of years ago, but the Bush Admin (being strapped to pay for both the war and the tax cuts) nixed the funding. Am I wrong? This Wikipedia article – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levee_and_flood_wall_failure_in_New_Orleans_(following_hurricane_Katrina) – mentions several specific design flaws and poor maintenance, but doesn’t really settle the question (which apparently is still being investigated).
I’ll try to find some. The “It’s Bush’s fault” version was so grossly oversimplified as to amount to public slander. Plus, you gotta admit that was ridiculously opportunistic.
The more expanded verison, however, is this:
The levees had plenty of money allocated, several times, from several sources. There was extra money allocated for the lovee which Bush argued against (and it was dropped). There was, however, sufficient funding. Louisiana got it. Strangely, none of it actually ever was used for the levee, and what worked did get done was apparently well under spec. This is a common problem in Louisiana, or so I’ve heard (both before and after the Katrina floods).
Here an Army Corp of Engineers official complains about Bush pushing to cut the budget. I don’t really sympathize. First, it’s not really Washington’s problem or responsibility. At best, it’s Baton Rouge’s. Second, money was allocated, but the Feds weren’t willing to pony up everything everyone asked for. They rarely are. Third, Congress usually gives them more cash anyway.
Plus, if you keep reading, there are several Corp members who note that the propsed work wouldn’t hav helped.
This news item notes how poorly Louisiana has been at spending wisely. Sure, Buhs tried to cut down on their goodies. But it’s not like they were going short. Piggie little state, ain’t it? Their leaders made the trade-offs to bring home the bacon by shafting real projects. It’s rather dishonest to try and blame Bush for this one, be ye liberal, conservative, or moonbat.
Aye, but I don’t think that itself was a good idea. It was a very bad idea, particularly as Congressmen continually waste the Corp’s budget. Washngton has no business dealing in things like these; it can only mess them up.
What happened to our crumbling infrastructure? Why, the same thing that happened to the homeless. They magically disappeared from the media once Bill Clinton was elected.
And in the meantime, the media lost interest in the subject.