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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe sound of America's Infrastructure falling apart
DOT chief: Deteriorating roads could lead to more freak accidents
By JOEL MORENO, KOMO-TV
Updated 12:29 a.m., Tuesday, July 24, 2012
SEATTLE -- A piece of deteriorating I-5 pavement shot through the air and hit a car this weekend, and the state's transportation chief says it might not be the last time we see such a freak accident.
Henry Jessop and his family were headed down I-5 near Northgate on Saturday when a brick-sized concrete panel came off the road, crashed through car's windshield and hit Jessop.
"The rock hit me so hard in the chest, it literally took my breath away," Jessop said.
Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond said road crews built much of the interstate in the 1960s, and more than 50 years of heavy use has taken its toll. Hammond said the agency doesn't have the staff or cash to fix everything that's falling apart, and the statewide to-do list just keeps getting bigger.
"As our transportation system has more wear and tear on it, and as we go longer without revenue dollars to just take care of the system that we have, we're unfortunately going to see more of this kind of thing," she said.
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/komo/article/DOT-chief-Deteriorating-roads-could-lead-to-more-3729575.php
msongs
(67,441 posts)Zalatix
(8,994 posts)See: the new Oakland Bridge.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)our steel industry has been reduced to that sad of a state.
Sirveri
(4,517 posts)They 'saved' something like 450 Million by having the modular sections built in China and shipped in segments over the Ocean.
I say 'saved' because that's money that could have went straight back into the domestic economy and returned via the tax base. But I guess that's not the point of infrastructure spending.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)and even run our government. WOW! Yea ...lets outsource our own US government.
Zalatix
(8,994 posts)dballance
(5,756 posts)bhikkhu
(10,724 posts)...with strong bipartisan support, after years of efforts. Note that neither side made much of it and it hardly earned a mention in the news.
Of course much more is needed, but it'd be nice if what was done got some notice.
4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)Of course only after the bankers have been given yet another check.
Speck Tater
(10,618 posts)... I guess we'll just have to get used to driving more slowly and steering around the sink holes.
But every problem brings with it an opportunity! Somebody will cash in by selling maps showing alternate routes around fallen bridges and washed out stretches of road. Eventually a whole new industry will spring up: cross country travel guides. Like the old wagon masters, they can lead a group of motorists to their destination by the safest and most efficient route, using satellite maps to keep up with which roads are still passable, which require four-wheel drive, and which should be avoided completely due either to impassable roads, or to lack of local law enforcement and danger from highwaymen.
WCGreen
(45,558 posts)They could give a shit about some father driving his family around and dodging chunks of concrete falling off of bridges that haven't had any maintenance in decades.
But we built a whole mess of stuff over there in IRAQ and gave millionaires the wherewithal to end up billionaires while the rest of us were told to tighten up your belts.
Fuck...
I'm suprised there ain't a real revolution brewing somewhere...
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is the Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and the recipient of fourteen honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. An section of his latest book Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier was recently excerpted in Natural History magazine.
http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/perspectives/012148/by-the-numbers
The article presents many interesting perspectives. Here is one brief section particularly germane to the topic of this thread:
Not only that, the upper quartile of Chinathe smartest 25 percentoutnumbers the entire population of the United States. Lose sleep over that one. Youve seen the numbers: China graduates about half a million scientists and engineers a year; we graduate about 70,000much less than the ratio of our populations would indicate. A talk-show host in Salt Lake City recently asked me about those numbers, and I said, Well, we graduate half a million of something a year: lawyers. So the guy asked me what that says about America, and I said, It tells me we are going into the future fully prepared to litigate over the crumbling of our infrastructure. Thats what the future of America will be.
I strongly recommend reading the whole article. Watch out for falling asphalt.
longship
(40,416 posts)But this whole thread is excellent.
R&
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Last edited Tue Jul 24, 2012, 10:27 PM - Edit history (1)
This part of what he said is so perfect:
For me, that is a profound thought. It is even spiritual. Science, enabled by engineering, empowered by NASA, tells us not only that we are in the universe but that the universe is in us.
MuseRider
(34,119 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)That the bill for getting our infrastructure up to an acceptable level, let alone improve it, is $2 trillion. That's right, $2 trillion.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)That's just for fixing and upgrading to current standards of what we have left.