Our bridges collapse, as we spend our money on war

The tragic events in Minnesota this week should be a wake-up call for all of us. The billions of dollars that we spend every month on the War in Iraq are coming from somewhere, and repair of our aging infrastructure is one of those areas.

Many of our nation's highways and bridges were built in the late 1950s and 1960s. There was a mad rush to build at the time for several reasons. The Cold War mentality that had us jump under our school desks for nuclear war drills (and just what was that supposed to do?) recognized that in the event of a nuclear bomb attack, we would need to be able to evacuate our cities quickly. Large scale interstates were built under the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956.

President Eisenhower was a proponent of building these highways, based on his experiences in World War II. However, even earlier, federal planning for a nationwide highway system began in 1921 when the Bureau of Public Roads asked the Army to provide it with a list of roads it considered necessary for national defense, resulting in the Pershing Map.

Interestingly, our current national mental state of a “war on terror” has not brought a similar rush to build or rebuild the infrastructure. This, even though we have seen the congestion and resulting danger on September 11 in New York City. Money is spent on a wide range of “security” items, from cameras to polo shirts that identify rescue workers. But was anything spent to make it easier to get out of NYC in the event of a disaster (either natural or man-made)?

From The Raw Story:

The American Society of Civil Engineers warned in a report two years ago that between 2000 and 2003, more than 27 percent of the nation's almost 600,000 bridges were rated as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

“America must change its transportation behavior, increase transportation investment at all levels of government, and make use of the latest technology,” the society's wide-reaching “Report Card for America's Infrastructure” added.

In my city of Baltimore, there is a new push for “traffic calming,” which I endorse because people speed and it's dangerous. The main artery near my house just had millions spent on it to add median islands and curbs that narrow the road, so that in many places cars must merge into one lane north or south.

That's fine, except that this is also marked with little blues signs that say “evacuation route.” Oh my. I'd better start clearing some space underneath my desk again ....