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Yep, it’s good to see the effects of those Bush tax cuts at work.
Somehow, #1, that comes across as a silly comment.
Since when is it the responsibility of the Feds to administer & repair a state-owned bridge?
In the end, when reconstructing the bridge in a hangar, like crashed airplanes, it will all come down to a particular bolt, that wasn’t designed to keep the bridge up.
Just like the Oklahoma building collapse with the truck bomb, key parts of the structure wasn’t put together properly by the contractor.
CNN & Fox should find the retired engineers that helped design & build that bridge and interview them, rather than spinning helicopters and interviewing each & every one of the 50 kids on that school bus.
2. “Since when is it the responsibility of the Feds to administer & repair a state-owned bridge?”
Actually, if you knew a little history you’d know that the interstate expressway system in the US, including bridges, was created by both federal and state monies. Although I do have to admit that blaming Bush for it is a stretch.
I’m blaming the feds for the ever increasing deterioration of the county’s over all infrastructure. This was just one example of that.
Let me guess… the lowest bidder won the contract to build this bridge?
#2 – CNN & Fox should find the retired engineers that helped design & build that bridge and interview them…
Noble thought, but you’re talking about sensational journalists… who don’t give much for technical details.
I guess my submittal of this exact same story yesterday wasnt good enough 🙁
Editor’s Note: Correct. 😉
“I have a hangnail.”
“BUSH CAUSED IT!”
“How?”
“I DON’T KNOW BUT HE DID. SHUT YOUR FACE AND AGREE WITH ME!”
Unhinged lunacy rears it’s head again…
Let me guess… the lowest bidder won the contract to build this bridge?
Since it was a federal project, yes. That’s one of the main reasons why our infrastructure sucks.
And no, our infrastructure didn’t suddenly get better under the Clinton administration, only to fall apart afterwards. It’s sucked for many years and little or nothing has been done.
Actually, the Governor of Minnesota is a Bush fanboy and has similar feelings. He strongly resists tax increases that everyone seems to want and has diverted road maintenance funding into new projects. We have increased road spending but it’s all for new projects, I believe maintenance has seen a net decrease in funding with inflation. Example, last session a bill passed with bipartisan support to increase the gas tax for the first time in a long time to pay for infrastructure repair and upgrades, he vetoed it. The inspection reports on this bridge seem to say that it would be good to replace it but…”it could be deferred” I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that deferment was preferred by the governor.
The bridge was built in the 60’s, so you cannot blame Bush with that one.
It was inspected in 2001 and 2006 and was found to have some cracks in part of the supports. There was testing done by the U of M and they said that it was still a very safe structure.
The construction being done on the bridge was cosmetic only, nothing more.
I live 6 miles from where the bridge went down. Blame whoever you want, we are still looking for survivors. Have a little compassion and wait a little bit before you start just raising hell and pointing fingers.
Get all the details. Pawlenty vetoed the bill because it also tried to sneak in a provision guaranteeing a minimum of 40% of transportation funding go to “transit” (ie. buses and light rail) with no cap. It was a subterfuge forced at him from the Dem controlled legislature. The bipartisan support was just politics as usual. The Republicans signed on being comfortable that it would get vetoed and not overriden. Pawlenty has approved far more road construction and maintenance than the last half dozen Governors. (More than the last two combined I believe).
Leave it to the DU crew to turn a tragedy political immediately instead of at least waiting until the death toll is finalized. I know people who use that bridge daily and I’ve driven it many times. It’s creepy to watch that and think it could happen anywhere at any time.
Final note: MN spends 52% more per capita on transportation than the national average despite having the 5th highest mileage of roads and being far lower in population. I don’t think funding was the issue.
>>it also tried to sneak in a provision guaranteeing a minimum of
>>40% of transportation funding go to “transit” (ie. buses
>>and light rail)
Fucking commies. Imagine the nerve of those guys, trying to divert some of the gas tax money from Hummers and snowmobiles into mass transit! Goddamned subversives!
If we reduce our dependence on foreign oil, THE TERRORISTS WIN!
Yeah, imagine ’em catering to the “we vote for you because we get handouts” crowd instead of the entire population they were elected to represent: the ones who actually pay those taxes they so freely and recklessly spend.
Oh, by the way, the funding wasn’t the issue, it was forcing a minimum and also allowing for no maximum. The minimum was too high and there was nothing to stop it from all going to transit leaving nothing for roads. I though everyone here was piling on because roads weren’t getting funded..
The mention of roadworks on the bridge reminded me of my army days; when crossing a bridge we were ordered to march ‘out of sync’ so that we wouldn’t accidentally find any disastrous resonance frequency of the bridge. To me it sounded like the roadworks may have created a buffeting of traffic that just happened to cause a positive feedback to the vibration of the bridge.
40 years will put a strain on any bridge. While it is true that the feds weren’t responsible for the bridge, they have been putting a lot of financial strain on state governments. Here in California, the feds do a lousy job of going after illegals, but we sure pay for them in the schools and in many other ways. Anyway……The hundreds of billions spent on this pointless war could have gone a long way in repairing our infrastructure.
I frequently run and ride on paths under that bridge as part of my triathlon training. I had plenty of opportunities to take a good look underneath and I did. Bridges are impressive structures.
The metal trusswork of that bridge made it look frail next to the nearby suspension bridges or those that were constructed using concrete arches. The surface was always kept in good shape, but underneath it’s age was apparent.
I wouldn’t be too quick to assign blame. My guess is that refurbing that particular bridge wasn’t a high priority for either Republicans or Democrats.
I have my own viewpoint and biases but for now we need to:
1. Help those who are injured or who lost loved ones.
2. Figure out what caused it to fall.
The finger pointing can wait and my guess is that no one person, political party, or organization is totally to blame.
Why does EVERYTHING have to be a partisan issue around here?
I remember when DU was smart and interesting. Now it seems like it’s just a bunch of fatheads getting together to point fingers at each other.
The war money would have paid for infrastructure? The Feds haven’t cut any spending, so any cut in war money would have led to a lower deficit.
#19 Do you really think that with this Congress there would be any reduction in the deficit? Now that I think about about it that could be said of the current and future groups of our Congressional “leaders”.
They are not going to spend money on repairing or maintaining our infrastructure when they can build new infrastructure (to nowhere).
Very symbolic of America today – everything falling apart while Bush’s super-rich cronies get richer.
Whenever I see examples like this, of our country’s infrastructure failing, I think of that movie “Brazil”. Where everything was falling apart, out in the real world, of the fictional Orwellian state. And they had become self-terrorized. No actual terrorists existed, things just exploded because people were bored, complacent, overworked or underpaid. Now in our real “real world” we have things exploding and falling down, out of neglect and funds shortage. While billions get paid to track terrorists, who may never amount to doing anything beyond planning deads in their kitchens. But it keeps the feds involved in expensive suits and fancy cars. Just like in that movie. There’s something rather horrifying about realizing that a movie’s comedically exaggerated premise is actually coming true.
Where are all the idiots who should be saying “OMFG!!!11!!!!1 THIS IS SO TOTALLY OFFENSIVE! I DEMAND YOU TAKE THIS OFF YOUR PERSONAL BLOG….NOW!!!!1! I’M NEVER VISITING THIS PIECE OF SHIT SITE EVER AGAIN! MORANS!!!!!1”?
Or are they only offended when their narrow view of the world is expanded?
#23 so natefrog, do you have *any* other commentary besides this copy-and-pasted rhetoric, repeated in every thread?
didn’t think so. die in a fire, plzkthx 🙂
#24: You first. When you can wrap your head around my argument that people are selective when it comes to being offended, get back to me with a response.