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We were biking over to Montrose Beach last weekend and crossed under LSD at Lawrence. We saw what seemed to be a new set of struts, supports and ironwork under there and thought, "Good. Someone's doing something about these bridges." (We were in Minneapolis a week before I-35W collapsed last year. Drove right over it. We pay attention to these things now.)
It would appear that we saw one of the handful of bridges they've worked on in the last 12 months, because CBS 2 is telling us that despite all the lip service paid to upgrading the state's bridges and infrastructure, ain't shit gettin' done.
Of the five busiest bridges with structural deficiencies, only one has been fixed – the Lake Shore Drive bridge over LaSalle Drive. The following four have not:
- The Stewart Avenue elevated section of the Dan Ryan Expressway;
- An elevated section of the Dan Ryan over the South Branch of the Chicago River;
- The Interstate 55 bridge over Lemont Road in Will County;
- A section of the bridge just before the Eisenhower Expressway turns into Congress Parkway.
In addition, 4,300 bridges statewide need attention, 17 percent of the state's bridges are ranked as in "poor condition," and the portion of the Stevenson over LSD is "is in worse shape than the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis," so sayeth IDOT. But don't fret, citizenry!
"I am confident that the bridges are safe," says Chief Bridge Engineer Ralph Anderson. Whew. And we were starting to worry. Why aren't many getting fixed? Trucks are too heavy, not enough time, corrosion from snow and ice is a major factor, and the usual: construction costs are sky-high and there's just not enough damn money.
"splotched bridge post" from chloeloe.
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but we're funding a war no one wants, though. that must count for something, right?
Seriously,
American's safety can wait. We've got military contractors, oil men, and war profiteers to enrich. Quit being so selfish America.
Seriously, this problem about funding predates the war by a significant margain. Please stop pretending history started when Bush took office or when we invaded Iraq. This is a problem that has been building for nearly a generation.
The viaduct over Lawrence Av. just off the Kennedy is a sight to behold. The steel rebar has been visible in most spots for over 10 years. Other spots, the rebar is the piling. And this thing carries Metra trains on it!
matilda, are you denying that we're hemorraghing money over there that could be used for badly needed domestic problems?
terrible wording. *that is badly needed for domestic problems ...
Smussy: Sort of.
The way wars typically are paid for--massive borrowing and then massive refinancing of that borrowing--does not preclude having a long-term infrastructure repair plan, something this country has neglected since most of us were probably in grade school.
As for the war: Well, yeah, it's a monstrous waste of money, and the bill will not be paid off for at least a couple of generations (The UK took some 60 years to pay back a loan from the USA that helped save Britian from going bankrupt in 1945-46, right after Hitler's defeat). But that does not excuse this country from fashioning a revenue plan for needed repairs or--god forbid--raising taxes (gas taxes? some other taxes?) relativey modestly over the past two decades to pay for much need infrastructure, whether bridges, road repairs or trains and buses.
I know it is tempting to blame our gaping domestic needs on wasteful war spending, but when it comes to federal budgets and financing, it is not usually a simple cause-and-effect relationship. One could argue that war spending has played a role in limiting other discretionary spending at the federal level, and that's a strong point, but it still does not explain our infrastructure neglect during the 1990s, for instance. Bridges don't detoriate overnight; mass transit systems take a long time to decay. The warnings about our sorry state of infrastructure in the USA were being sounded by far-seeing people at least since the late 1980s. I remember the warnings in various journals, newspapers, etc.
As well, war spending by the federal government does not let the states off the hook. Yes, they want federal matching dollars, but states also can create their own revenue sources and repair plans. As we have seen in Illinois, the lack of a capital plan-which would enjoy billions in federal matching funds-has really nothing to with the Iraq War, but rather the stupidity of our leaders and of the voters who keep electing these fools.
The Iraq War is only one of many, many factors in this story. Sure, it's an easy scapegoat, but it is just not the full picture.
(Speaking of war spending, it's not even the main federal "program" contributing to our mounting debt, according to projections from all sides. Rather, our debt service--interest payments--as well as our other non-discretionary spending--think Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security-are quickly leading us into a financial black hole. Even if we stopped the war next week, we would still have massive budget problems at the federal level.)
Sorry to be such a rambling idiot, but I think it is inaccurate and unwise to pin every problem of spending on the Iraq War.