Infrastructure Collapse - What Cost?

While the failure of the bridge in Minnesota last week is not funny per se, the OpEd Cartoonists, more so than the general public are getting the implications and having a field day with it. Mike Luckovich had this one on Saturday, which should become a classic along with Rob Rogers . And Tony Auth put this one out on Friday.

The United States is fighting a war of attrition. In a posting somewhere else, someone pointed out to me that the utilities are run by private companies in the US (this after I posted something about the manholes in New York not being terrorist related as anyone who has lived in DC for more than a month can tell you. We went through several years of exploding manholes here before Pepco (the power company) was forced to do something about it). While I am aware that the utilities are private, there is supposed to be oversight of their operation by the government. Part of that oversight should include the general safe operations and health of the infrastructure. Regrettably, as we are beginning to learn, this oversight has been neglected for far too long and it is beginning to become a painful cost.

How painful? Bridge inspection costs are expected to exceed most State transportation agency budgets for this year. That means that things like fixing the flaws will have to come out of the next budget round. And we have not even had snow yet this year. Underground maintenance is almost impossible for most cities to manage with roads so congested that it is almost impossible to close to do the required work.

At the heart of all of this however, is the almighty dollar. Americans bitch about being taxed, yet they demand that their roads are not filled with potholes, that their bridges are sound and stable and that they get power and water when they flip the switch or flush the toilets. They expect the Government to rebuild their city, neighbourhood, house when a storm levels it, even though they insist on building on land that is unstable, prone to flooding or below sea level.

The infrastructure in the United States is crumbling and has been crumbling for decades. Meanwhile, money is flowing out of the United States in the form of foreign aid, military spending and other forms of empire building and it has to stop. Or the black out in the Northeast, exploding manholes and failing bridges will be the norm, rather than the tragic exception.