As 2007 began, at least 73,694 of the nation's 596,808 bridges, or about 12 percent, were classified as "structurally deficient," Federal Highway Administration figures show. They include 816 built as recently as the early 1990s and 3,871 that are nearly a century old....--Forbes, today
And it's not just bridges. It's dams and tunnels too. Our national infrastructure is crumbling.
Some estimates for fixing all this stuff range as high as a trillion $.
And should we not have the expectation, as American citizens, that the bridges we cross will stand? Isn't that a proper function of government, certifying those structures?
But, instead, we're pouring our wealth into an unnecessary foreign war that we started and won't end.
"People think they're saving money by not investing in infrastructure, and the result is you have catastrophes like this," said Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wis., a member of the House transportation committee. "This is something that should spur us to action at the national level."
Something of the magnitude of the Space Race is called for, but how likely is that under this present regime, with its mind on sand and oil?
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