Or, are they? CBS News/AP: America’s Bridges Still Falling Down
A year after the worst U.S. bridge collapse in a generation brought calls for immediate repairs to other spans, two of every three of the busiest problem bridges in each state – carrying nearly 40 million vehicles a day – have had no work beyond regular maintenance.
An Associated Press review of repairs on each state’s 20 most-traveled bridges with structural deficiencies found just 12 percent have been fixed. In most states, the most common approach was to plan for repairs later rather than fix problems now.
The bridges reviewed by the AP – 1,020 in all – are not in imminent danger of collapse, state engineers and highway officials say. But the officials acknowledge the structures need improvement, many sooner rather than later.
Ah, so they aren’t really falling down. Just a bit of AP hysterical writing.
They can’t blame it on Bush, though, despite a minor attempt, regarding Bush stating that he will veto the latest $1 billion transportation bill (which is loaded with pork.) The AP points out that approx $140 billion is needed to fix or replace the bridges, and Congress has not done enought (though they fail to point out who the majority party is in Congress, and holds the purse strings.)
Maybe if Congress and the State legislatures would be responsible with the money they take from the citizenry at the barrel of a gun (or at least a jail cell), there would be plenty of money. Of course, that goes for everything government gets its hands on.
