Waiting for the next shoe (i.e. bridge) to drop!

By: Shenandoah Democrat
Published On: 8/4/2007 8:36:55 AM

After all the discussion this week about the nation's failing infrastructure after the tragedy in Minnesota, MSNBC has posted some very alarming information, based on federal data, thqat shows exactly how many of each state's bridges are either "structurally deficient" (D) or "functionally obsolete" (O). Their interactive map allows you to see the list of each state's substandard bridges. See it here.

You can see that here in the Old Dominion 25% of our bridges fall into these two hazardous D/O categories. (In Massachusetts and Rhode Island, over half the bridges are deficient!)
NOT good news! I think it's time to insist that our Governor and Legislature come up with a date certain plan to mitigate ALL these problems and develop a sound secure funding mechanism to do it (NOT abuser fees). How about a sliding scale gas tax increase of say 3-5 pennies/gallon which would at least get us started?
One more point worth noting, on the MSNBC map of states with the worst bridges, the worst bridges are largely concentrated in the mid-Atlantic, Northeast, Midwest, with a couple variations, (like Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina all having  a high ratio of deficient bridges) The states with the lowest ratios of deficient bridges are the Mountain States and Deep South. There are probably lots of explanations for this--climate, traffic volume, age of structures, industrial activity etc. But note that the map generally follows the presidential election pattern--states with the most deficient bridges largely vote Demcratic and vice-versa, (at least in the presidential). Whatever the reason, the political likelihhood of getting any national Republican support for a major infrastructure reconstruction effort seems more unlikely, and the likelihhod that the Repubs will cast the Democrats as big spenders if such an effort is proposed appears more likely. Afterall, the Repubs would ratehr spend out hard earned tax dollars on "cost effective" and "badly-needed" projects like Don Young's bridge to nowhere.
Remember, we need to be fighting those terrorists in Iraq so we don't have to come back and fight them here and risk having a bridge collapse on our troops!

Comments



What would Mitt do-or did? (VA Breeze - 8/4/2007 12:43:49 PM)
Mitt Romney keeps talking about his "great" record as govenor-explain the infastructure issues Mitt?


Gas Excise Tax (tx2vadem - 8/4/2007 2:51:43 PM)
Whether you look at U.S. DOT or at EIA, a penny excise tax on gasoline is going to net you about $40 million in revenue for the year in VA.  So, I don't know that a 3-5 cent sliding scale would even be the tip of the iceberg.