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OT: I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis

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[quote user="jeaton"][quote user="Bucyrus"] Unless this collapse turns out to be an act of God, the cause will be negligence.  The I35W bridge was rated structurally deficient; and it did fall down.  However it is not true that all bridges rated structurally deficient have achieved that status through negligence and are in danger of collapse. Yet that was the blatantly dishonest theme of the "Aging Infrastructure" pieces last night on ABC, CBS, and NBC.  That was complete and utter political propaganda put forth by those who want to expand the role of government and their willing accomplices in the media.  They even broke down the price tag so we would know how much it would cost us individually. In order to drive home their lie that structurally deficient bridges are dangerous, they presented an old concrete bridge with holes through the deck and rebar hanging out of crumbling concrete.  The bridge was closed, blocked, and obviously out of service.  But all that mattered was that it was in the group of bridges rated structurally deficient, and it could therefore serve as an example to reinforce the bald face lie that all bridges rated structurally deficient are dangerous.    [/quote]I'm confused here.  I know that a very few public highways, toll roads actually, and their bridges have been sold to private parties.  The Chicago Sky Way and the Indiana Toll Road come to mind.  However, hasn't it always been role of government to build and maintain highway bridges along with the rest of the public highway system?  Where on earth did you get the idea that there is some sort of conspiracy on the part of the media and the government to "expand" their roll?  How would that even be possible, given the fact that that is their roll."Negligence" means not paying attention.  In fact, the Minnesota Highway Department and the Federal Highway Administration have been paying attention to the I-35W Bridge and every other bridge in Minnesota.  The same is true in every other state.  The reason that bridges are deficient is a shortage of funds.  Unless you have another idea for getting the money to do the repairs or replacements, I am afraid it is going to come from taxes.I agree with you that not every bridge that is considered deficient is dangerous, but the simple truth is that we are not keeping up with repairs, rebuilds or replacement of either our bridges or highways-let alone building more to meet growing demand.  One doesn't need to read government studies to get that.  Just go for a drive.  If we don't start to catch up, eventually deficient bridges will become dangerous.  I guess if we don't want to spend the money we could just close them down.  Yeaah!  That's the ticket![/quote]You are correct in that the government owns the bridges and must collect taxes to pay for them.  I am not opposed to that.  The government does have a roll as you say. However, I disagree that the government has no ability or motive to expand its roll beyond what it legitimately needs to be.  In fact I believe it is highly motivated to expand, and if there were no resistance by the electorate, the public sector would simply expand until there was no more private sector.  It is not a conspiracy.  It is not a secret plan that was hatched out in the dead of the night in a secret room.  It just naturally flows through the veins of the public sector.I agree that there is a shortage of funds for bridges and roads, but what government function is not short of funds?  In my opinion, government is always short of funds because of its inherent motivation to expand its power, which it does by collecting taxes and spending money.  The primary objective is to spend money and come up with reasons to spend more.  So they over-spend.  And unlike the private sector, government spends without any financial risk, and without much accountability.  And when they collect taxes that are justified by a targeted application such as roads and bridges, they spend the money on a lot of unrelated things.  Then they come back to the taxpayers and tell them they are not paying enough to cover the target application.  I think it is a serious mistake to believe that government simply spends money as legitimately needed, like a responsible head of household seeking a return of value for the money spent.  But back to the bridges.  It is true that bridges will fall down if not maintained, and that maintenance costs money.  It is also true that many bridges are rated structurally deficient due to a shortage of funds.  However it is not true that bridges fall down because of a lack of funds.  That would be impossible because we have a federal bridge inspection program that monitors the condition of all bridges in great enough detail to know how close they are to the point where they would fall down, and prescribes the most cost effective maintenance necessary to get the most life out of them.  If there are not enough funds to perform the maintenance, then the bridge needs to be closed.  If there are not enough funds to inspect the bridge, then the bridge needs to be closed.  These are not just my suggestions.  They are the rules of the game. The job of the inspectors is to go over the bridge with a fine-tooth comb to the extent that they know exactly how strong the structure is.  There is no guesswork.  A component of this inspection is to monitor the traffic load and keep it within the safe limit.  So if a bridge falls down because of corrosion, broken members, stress cracks, missing bolts, etc., it has to be due to negligence of this inspection routine.  There is no option to compromise that inspection routine because of a lack of funds.  So a lack of funds cannot possibly be the cause of the I35W bridge collapse even though many Minnesota politicians and all Minnesota media are saying it is so.
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