London Bridge is Falling Down....."

by David Grand
August 15, 2007

That's as untrue as other seemingly naive nursery rhymes, for that bridge over the Thames river has withstood the test of time since 1862 (seven years longer than the Brooklyn Bridge), without showing any signs of weakening, let alone of falling into the river.

Oh, that the same could be said of the more than 70,000 major bridges in the country rated structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, which represents 27.5 percent of the nation's 162,000 bridges. Gee whiz, it looks like I'd qualify on both scores.

Shocking as that sounds, that alarm bell signaling the sorry condition, not only of our bridges but of the nation's entire infrastructure, was sounded three years ago by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), whose report card in 2004 assigned a just-above failing grade of "D." (A slight drop from the "D+" it got in 2000.)

And while I didn't lose any sleep over that ominous bit of news--probably due to the fact that most of my grades in high school were D's--neither apparently did the White House or Congress, who placed providing the $1.6 trillion ASCE said would be needed over the next five years to bring the infrastructure up to minimum standards, if not on the back burner, certainly not up front.

A more realistic cost  is more like $800 billion, but not even that amount has been budgeted for by either Bush or Congress. And to add insult to injury, not a peep has been heard from the 24-member National Infrastructure Advisory Committee Bush set up in 2002. Wonder how much they're paid for their silence?

However, it took the collapse of that 40-year-old interstate bridge (35 W) in Minneapolis on August 2 (that had been rated two years earlier as structurally deficient and possibly in need of replacement) to make 'em realize they'd better get with the program and come up with the funds to prevent other similar calamities from occurring. They did everything short of swearing on the Bible that they'd stay true to their promise to correct the dire condition of our infrastructure. We've heard that song before, haven't we?

But given that they were sincere in making that pledge, carrying it out is easier said than done. For our nation's cornucopia (horn of plenty) is about as empty as a barn before harvest. And that finding the funds for that massive undertaking would be like trying to find El Dorado, the mythical city of gold in the Andes, due in large measure to the constant drain of funds for the war. (According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, we've spent $500 billion on the war in Iraq and will probably end up spending $1 trillion before it's over, if and when that ever happens.)

That amount of money sure would go a long way in shoring up our infrastructure. But that's just another pipe dream on my part, to add to my lifelong collection of others gone up in smoke.