Is the Bridge collapse just a sign of the aging infrastructures in the USA?

Question

Detroit has still wooden water pipes from 1890, leaking worse then a 3 month old baby. There isn't a day, when some District in Cleveland has no Electricity. Europe has long abandoned overhead wiring, which is the major cause for energie outs in the USA and is 10 years ahead of Communications, with glas fiber cables for the a faster internet. Roads here are in worse state then in soem thrid world countires. Why are we not investing and creating jobs for the future?

Answer 1

We are not investing in our infrastructure because we have sqaundered our future on 40 years of immense and escalting military spending and subsides for multi-billion dollar corporations instead of investing our wealth in our nation.

I'm not a pascifist by any means but if you look at the numbers it's obvious.

Europe spends on average 15% as much of their GDP's on military spending as we do and 60% more on infrastructure.

Before anyone get's their knickers in a twist, if you've been to Norway, France or Germany lately you'd know what the difference is.

France has not had a blackout, anywhere in the country since 1964. They have NO overhead power lines anywhere in the country.

Norway which has winters as bad as Minnesota has no potholes on any of their highways in February or July and in Germany the Autobahn is so smooth you can write a letter on the pavement.

They've built many multi-billion dollar suspension bridges and 20 mile long tunnels to replace ancient stone bridges or re-route traffic jams and the price is not an issue. They know it benefits commerce and productivity.

We Should have that too. We are richer than they are right?

Right! Then why don't we do that?

Because.....

The European governments tell their utilities what they want.

In the US our public utilities tell our government what they want.

They spend on their countries, not war after war and making their rich richer.

Then Europeans have trust funds for infrastructure that their legislatures don't pilfer to cover the escalting deficits they don't have that we do.

They cooperate between nations for important projects.

Our States are nearly broke under corrupt inefficient legislatures and padded bloated cost structures and can only build such things by accuiring more and more debt.

Criticize them all you want but France's national debt is nearly 40 time less as a percentage of GDP as ours is.

And we are richer than them?

Huh?

We should demand better of our government. If don't we won't get it.

The French do and they get it.

Answer 2

It's north america in general. An incident of major importance happens in the U.S. at least once a week but the media haven't been very good at connecting the dots.

More money is spent on media infrastructure than 'old economy' infrastructure which would be really funny if didn't end up with such tragic consequences.

Neglect in the area of water pipes is probably the most pressing issue but the one issue that politicians in municipalities are least likely to address.

For the people that feel this is a terrorist attack, this is just an example of how unaware people are of the problem. A bridge collapses in the United States at an average of
ONE A DAY.

Answer 3

Older bridges are doing fine. Here is a better answer I found:

To whom it may concern:

I will get right to the point. I think I know what caused the Interstate 35W bridge to collapse...

Resonance.

This is not unprecedented. In 1940 the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed for a physically similar reason though it was a different type. Please see the movie at this link.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P0Fi1VcbpAI

The fault lies with the design in which regions of support or flexing joints are evenly spaced instead of staggered.

This is consistent with the simultaneous breaking into equal sections, and with eyewitness reports of vibrations, and up and down movements. All of these relate to oscillations of standing wave patterns. One witness identified the vibration as driven by a jackhammer. Resonance can amplify modest vibrations.

Sincerely,

Scott Boman
Physics Professor
MCC and WCCCD

Answer 4

Yes, but it is also symbolic of the collapse of Minnesta in the NBA, with them trading away their only good player yesterday.

In fact, the bridge collapse prevented a scheduled NBA press conference on the Kevin Garnett trade to Boston!

Look out!!! Bad news comes in three, they say.

Was Hershall Walker #1, or shall Minnesola expect the other "shoe" (or bridge) to drop?

Answer 5

yes
we are investing in war and don't need jobs for the future since Armageddon is coming
at least that's what I hear the current administration heard from God

Answer 6

FORGET ALL THAT

WE HAVE TARGETS TO BOMB
AND
REBUILD IN OTHER COUNTRIES
(no time for stuff here at home)

Answer 7

The idea of decentralizing transportation, and privatizing roads to companies (incentivized by cutting costs), doesn't help. I don't know if it applies to this particular example, but in general, we need to look more at privatization, and how to do it with the right incentives.

Answer 8

We were warned about this two years ago when the levees in New Orleans broke. For all of the yapping about local government failures and such, there is nothing inspection can do when there is no money allocated to repair or replace the structures. People in New Orleans were crying for years to have its levees reinforced. I used to row in one of the canals and saw first hand the erosion around one of the levees that broke. I thought, naively, "oh, the corps must know about this and must believe it to be okay."

Several years before the levee break in New Orleans, a bridge collapsed about a block from one of the levee breaks. A barge hit a support on a bridge that lacked any protection from marine traffic. It was repaired after a woman and her child drowned to death in the Industrial Canal. A block in the other direction; however, are a set of locks that were being replaced to allow bigger vessels to pass.

Funny how our government can cough up the money when commerce can be aided, but is broke when called to protect its citizens from levee breaks and collapsing bridges.

Answer 9

I can just see it NOW....
Americans blaming the those who imported the steel to make this bridge!???
Was it Japanese steel?
Or was it American steel, that was cheapened to compete with Japanese steel in the 1960's???

Hmmmm.... lets see what excuse they use this time?

Answer 10

Because people want to spend our tax money one some lazy mother of 6 kids to 4 fathers on welfare.

For the real answers- That bridge was only 40 years old. The US is a much larger country than any in Europe, and unlike most of Europe our population is growing faster and further out from city centers, forcing us to build new infrastructure rather than upgrade the existing infrastructure.

Answer 11

I guess you need to ask that question to the individuals states that are not using their funding properly to fix such problems.

As far as jobs being created, there are jobs being created. I have to hand it to you, this was a creative way to try to place the blame on the federal government for the tragedy yesterday. I was waiting for someone to do it. I thought they would be more obvious in their attempt though.