| By SoCapAlex - Aug 2nd, 2007 at 11:48 pm EDT |
| Also listed in: 2007 Social Capital |
Before I go all political rant, I would like to just take a moment to acknowledge the lives lost due to correctable human error this week in Minnesota. Darn, I couldn't even get through the first sentence. Okay, let me try again. Let's have a moment of silence for the deaths and injuries of so many unsuspecting drivers who thought their tax dollars might have gone to things like, oh, securing a major bridge in the city that they live in.
Sorry. Can't really get it out the way I planned. It is just so upsetting when lives are lost due to known structural damage that those appointed or elected to positions of control and power refuse to address.
Granted, natural diasters and unknown elements can make a problem much more difficult to solve or respond to in an emergency. However, when these tragic situations occur and some head honcho somewhere has a report sitting on his desk that provides warning of the issue at hand, there is a real problem.
According to some news reports, this bridge was reported as in need of major repair in 2005, yet stll classified as safe. Ridiculous! The same with the levees, but who wants to bring that up now? I mean come on. We're in 2007 for goodness sake. Aren't we over that Katrina thing? And in a few months, maybe a year, people may very well say the same thing about this bridge. And i find a problem with all of that.
Nationwide, there is all this structure damage just sitting a waiting for the right calculation of events to create another tragedy. And folks will be in the mist of it, trying to figure out how they fell into this "bad timing."
What is the meaning of this widespread neglect that is costing people their lives? The bottom line is MONEY! What else?!
And what true value is money when people are loosing their lives? I am sure there is a depreciation in its value.
Part of this progressive agenda needs to include attention to unattended structures that have been neglected in exchange for conservative fiscal spending.
I know that this incident is going to impact many in DC because, in addition to its regular inhabitants, DC is composed of people from around the country (and world but that is a different blog). Many of these folks have family near Minnesota or the surrounding areas. My heart goes out to them and their families.
Now, for that much needed moment of silence (may your soul find rest).
!
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Now how to address; 1) the deal between Fed. and State was, the Feds. would put up most of the money for building the bridge and the State would maintain-we need to change that for future construction. States put up most of the money to build and Feds. maintain. 2) regardless of how much money is appropriated for maintenance, there are always priorities as to which gets done first-this bridge should have been at the top of the list due to its size and traffic, non-redundant failure mode, and its inspection assessment of deficient; so maintenance prioritization needs to be overhauled to better ensure fixing the worst first.