A few months ago I wrote about “Infrastructural Insanity”. That piece focused on our roads, airports and energy systems, all of which are in various states of disrepair. (Evidenced by this week’s piece in The Wall Street Journal.) This week, Volume II, looks at our nation’s crumbling bridges.
On March 21st, The Today Show reported that almost 60,000 bridges in this country (54,985 to be precise) are in need of major repair. Many of the bridges, to use THEIR language, are “literally falling apart”. Maybe it’s just me but that seems like 54,985 too many.
Don’t worry, though. With current government funding they may be repaired by 2021. 2021??!! Really?
How many millions of cars are going to cross those bridges in the next five years? How many families will be sitting in those cars with no clue the ground beneath them is in serious danger of collapsing?
Nothing in this country gets done quickly or efficiently anymore, especially when the government gets involved. I used to wonder why people accept this but maybe that’s what this political season is telling us: they don’t.
Look at what’s taken place over the last nine months objectively. Candidates are emerging from left field because people have simply had it. Voters at Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders rallies revert to the same refrain: “We have to try something new.”
Are these guys the right “new”? I don’t know. Smarter people than me will decide. But folks, London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down and none of the old guard seem concerned about it. Now it seems that at least we, the people have decided to express our outrage.
Paul Simon wrote, “Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down.” Where do we end up if we can no longer cross bridges, if we can no longer move forward, if we stop progressing as a people? We end up in troubled waters.
We must fix our infrastructure. Now.
Art Gurwitz
Founder, Areena
Author
