Transportation Terror in Our Own Backyard
As I watched the extensive TV coverage of the disastrous crash of an interstate highway bridge over the Mississippi in Minneapolis/St. Paul while recuperating from a total hip joint replacement, I was reminded of the car crash that first injured my hip as a teenager. My Father’s ‘63 Chevy flipped over because of an unrepaired six inch drop off from the paved road surface to the shoulder, a narrow bridge ahead and my own driving inexperience. While adjusting the car radio I had allowed the right front wheel to slip off the sharply elevated road and with a narrow bridge approaching I pulled the steering wheel quickly back to the left causing the Chevy to flip over. Unsafe highways, bridges and driving are a genuine terror threat to us all.
About thirty yards through the woods from the backyard deck of our home of 35 years is Piney Grove Road and about 300 yards down Piney Grove is a bridge over Kinley Creek. My wife and I travel over the bridge daily to get to our pharmacy, bank and to shop for groceries. At night we hear giant tractor-trailer trucks rumble down Piney Grove and across the bridge. As the catastrophic Minnesota bridge collapse captured national headlines, a picture of our small bridge and a front page story in The State newspaper -”Safer S. C. bridges? $3 billion, 20 years” focused our attention on the transportation terror in our own backyard. According to the South Carolina Department of Transportation the Kinley Creek Bridge is rated third among 105 bridges most in need of replacement in S.C.
For thirty-five years my law firm has represented people who suffer severe injuries in transportation accidents and it has become increasingly obvious that we are being terrorized daily by a very real threat of severe injury and death from such accidents. Beyond the need for a much greater emphasis on driver safety and training, we must adequately fund the maintenance, repairs, and rebuilding of our transportation infrastructure to develop safer, eco-friendly transportation for our highly mobile citizenry. Statistically there are many more human casualties in transportation accidents each year than in war. President Dwight Eisenhower, who built the now aging interstate highway system, warned us about the military industrial complex. Ike believed in peace and prosperity.
With the ideology of unquestioned and unlimited spending for national defense and tax-cuts-are-the-will-of-God, there is very limited political momentum for our very real transportation needs. As Jim Klobuchar, an award-winning columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune put it, “Don’t raise the gasoline tax. Don’t raise ANY tax. And for God’s sake don’t raise the income tax on people who, after a six year feast of tax cuts, can afford to pay more.”
Ike would applaud Mr. Klobuchar’s criticism that “the federal government needs the money to run the world and start wars and build bases on every continent, meaning it doesn’t have enough to keep things like old bridges healthy.”
A 2005 report card on America’s infrastructure by the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the country a D and warned of dire consequences unless a crash program is undertaken to fix it.
There has been a sharp reduction in the federal government’s role in maintaining the nation’s infrastructure. “In the 1960s, the federal government and the states paid roughly equal amounts to fund infrastructure projects, but state and local governments bear most of the costs these days,” according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. With no national plan for maintenance of the system, decisions on repair and construction are left to the states and localities, and oversight is divided between all three levels of government
Since the 1970s, deregulation dismantled social reform and previously enacted restrictions on corporate activities. The result has been a concentration of wealth in the hands of a few akin to the days of the Robber Barons. According to a recent study, in 2005 the top one-tenth of one percent of the US population (some 300,000 people) had nearly as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. President George W. Bush is the personification of a political system determined to destroy all barriers to the accumulation of the personal wealth by the very rich. Taxes are virtually nonexistent on the principle sources of income of the super-rich, like capital gains and other tax dodges.
The money needed to upgrade our transportation infrastructure could be available. Last years Christmas bonuses to corporate executives exceeded $100 billion. That is more than twice the annual federal allocation of $40 billion for the country’s roads and bridges. And, what about the $450 billion already spent on the unnecessary war in Iraq and its ongoing weekly outlay of $1.8 billion, not to mention the $533 billion Pentagon budget or the $555 billion in tax cuts for the rich.
Why can’t the Halliburtons come home and repair our bridges, roads, and physical infrastructure and win the war against the transportation terror in our own back yard?
Tom Turnipseed is an attorney, writer and peace activist in Columbia, South Carolina. www.turnipseed.net
In Indiana, our governor has repeatedly ignored concerns with repairing our current roads while pursuing a new terrain highway (meaning the destruction of forest, some of the few remaining family farms, and the creation of more SPRAWL. We have begun the process of selling off our road infrastructure to firms such as the Australian Macquarie, commonly reported to be structured along similar lines as Enron, doomed for future financial collapse. If our roads are in bad shape now, I can’t wait to see what will happen when it is the responsibility of a private, profit-oriented firm to maintain them. Especially one with such questionable ethics as Macquarie. But our governor, Mitch Daniels, is a corporate whore who will, as is the trend these days, put riches before the welfare of the people (I think there might be an actual law in Indiana against using the WORD “welfare”).
Personally, I think it is time to let the highway system fall entirely by the wayside. To forget it and move on. We have been a nation of individual transporters for far too long and it is high time we moved on to something more sustainable. As the automotive industry, already capable of building fully electric vehicles (see “Who Killed the Electric Car?” a terrific documentary that will leave you seething), but still fights tooth and nail against CAFE standards, it is time to brush them aside in our efforts to combat global warming. If the automotive industry would rather protect its partners in oil than the welfare of consumers, forget them. If it weren’t for automobiles and our national addiction to oil, we wouldn’t be in quite the global warming straits we are now, and we sure as Hell wouldn’t be in Iraq and Afghanistan, fighting for cheap oil and a high profit margin. Rather than demanding that we repair our transportation infrastructure, we should demand to REPLACE it. Imagine the lives that would be saved yearly if we weren’t all racing around in individual automobiles, trying to get everywhere in a big hurry. Imagine the improvement in the quality of the air we breathe! And imagine a return to summers that didn’t break 100 degrees for weeks at a time!
Our entire vision of transportation is a bridge that is waiting to collapse with considerably more catastrophic results than those in Minneapolis (catastrophic enough, I should think). Our transportation system is at the root of global warming, destruction of fertile farmland, an epidemic of asthma, and countless other environmental straws gathering to break the camel’s back. The heavy metals in tires, for example, are spread through our environment in significantly harmful amounts by the general wear of tires! It is high time we changed our transportation paradigm, for the health and survival of our country and our planet.
www.unknown-arts.org/politics
An excellent assessment by Mr. Turnipseed. The fox has been guarding the treasury for some time now, whilst Halliburton and Blackwater have been plundering it.
We are today a fascist controlled country.
The powere that be will talk for a while about the infrastructure, but nothing will be done. The rich have to have their money and the Halliburtons, et al will continue to screw up the rebuilding of Iraq and other places. They are now busy building giant prisons in which to put those of us who hller too loudly about what is going on. See you there!
One of the really cool characteristics of us Americans is our ability to ignore everything until we’re directly affected while pretending that a band of magic government elves are busy maintaining our dilapidated infrastructure, obsolete nuke plants, cracking dams and levees, etc, when our lyin’ eyes remind us that said elves quit long ago. The United States of Cognitive Dissonance.
But the arguments are silly, because America is now so deeply in debt that all the demanding in the world won’t provide the billions needed to fix such a massive problem, and we’ve become such a corrupt people that we know every contract awarded will be via the Halliburton system, which means overpaying for dangerously half-assed work, assuming the work paid for is actually done at all. (Can you say Boston Big Dig?)
Think of the American infrastructure as a singular product with a finite shelf life - and how many products built in the early half of the 1900s are still around?
i agree with unknown
the sooner the auto is gone
the better..
Money for roads and bridges, NOT for war!
Another thing that is really screwed is that everyday millions of hours (and gallons of gasoline) are wasted in rush hour traffic on highways that haven’t been updated to meet the needs of the people. It’s clear that the politicians and so called civil servants don’t respect the people enough to serve them like they should be served.
We need either efficent hi speed public transportation or more lanes on thehighways that go through our congested cities. We should shut down the pentagon and cancel the military. To hell with war.
Unknown Arts: Beautiful response! And, right on target. I wish I had the words to say it, but you did it for me. Having ridden the rails in Italy, which are amazingly efficient,fast and very clean. I was amazed to pass by hugh highways with very little traffic except for semis. Every class of people from women wearing fur coats to students were traveling on the trains. It was a pleasant experience. All of the rail road beds in the U.S are still laid out and the amount of money spent on war and bases all over the world would probably be a good start to rebuilding the railroads, as long as the projects were awarded to honest companies. I don’t think Halliburton and RKB are qualified to build anything. They have botched every rebuilding job in Iraq but the new Embassy. We have outsourced everything else we might as well import better transportation from the Japanese. They already have it available. I would give up my bicycle anyday for a fast train ride.
They never intended to fix these bridges, because they know we won’t have the option of driving for much longer.
When gas hits 5$ a gallon there won’t be anyone on the bridge.
Want to know what the future of transportation in North America will look like?
Ask the Amish.
In our throwaway society, we manufacture and build to last just a short time. Otherwise what will keep our economy ticking? Remember the “be patriotic, go out and shop” order after Sept. 11 ‘01?
No consumption? No jobs!! Our investments don’t grow!
An other mantra is cost-cutting. How do we achieve that: pay less for everything and everyone. And then look at the results.
Add to this the 15 minute attention span of the average western media-watching punter and voila! - we have New Orleans and other catastrophies, forgotten already or just an annoying incident in the past. Let’s move on! Don’t analyze, don’t learn…
Hello everyone from the land of MacBank! Things here are not that bad yet, but you, dear US are our very models! In politics, in economics, in healthcare, infrastructure, ethics, etc. etc…
I see that our government will spare no taxpayer expense to rebuild the bridge and clear the river so that our taxsupported agrabusiness can continue raking in the bucks. But the dead and maimed citizens can take care of themselves. Compassion?
Galen,
You are right: horse and buggy for everyone! Or a bike. Or let’s just walk. The general population is fat enough as it is - on your bikes Americans!!
No oil? No worries! We’ll save some money and our waistlines.
If we want to reduce the pressure on the road infrastructure, drive less… it’s that simple! Yes, a bridge like the one in Minneapolis will need maintenance over the years, but there would be more money to do so if we didn’t need so many new roads and repair of the surfaces because of the huge demand created by so many vehicles.
I’m all for replacing the automobile as we know it. There is better, safer, faster technology out there. The rail system in Europe was mentioned here… or how about those bullet trains in Japan? That’d put a big squeeze on energy wasting domestic air travel! Transporting goods over long distances by semi is wasteful as well. Those heavy trucks make all those potholes, and over-stress things like bridges. Rail transport is much more efficient. Lighter weight, highly efficient personal tranportation is a better option for that trip to the grocery store. Better designed communities will greatly reduce the stress on road infrastructures.
No need to return to the horse & buggy days. Better (in every way)transportation options are in our future. The big question is, when will we get off our butts and get going on them?
scarlet_pimpernel,
Better yet, let’s fight to legalize INDUSTRIAL HEMP which replaces petroleum all the way and despite labor, which is actually a good thing for better paying jobs, we don’t have to crash. Besides, when petroleum can be used to manufacture all the junk foods out there, hemp and other plant oils can be put to manufacturing truly healthy food that can in fact REPAIR our BRAIN DAMAGED society.
Of course, America can still stay the course of fighting wars for oil and more obesity and DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM.
VeggieCar,
HEMP FOR FUEL. Do a google search for HEMP FUEL and you’ll be surprised what America has deeply missed for the past 70 years and what America won’t miss as soon as the Left unites to fight for its legalization.
I have just one question: since there are indeed such shortcomings in the national infrastructure of the United States, why then are U.S. taxpayers being fleeced to help upgrade Mexico’s highways and ports? As I have already reported — and have practically begged major media to pursue — the U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA) last year began financing several “feasibility studies” leading toward the eventual financing of projects to modernize Mexican transportation and shipping networks. The goals of these endeavors were to ease the shipment of goods in and out of Mexico, as well as to ameliorate the flight of companies from Mexico to Asia, where even cheaper labor could be found, believe it or not.
It’s time for policymakers and the mainstream media to take a closer look at this theft by the USTDA. See “U.S. Helps Fund Mexican Road Projects As Industry Flees To Asia” http://tpr.typepad.com/thepeacockreport/2006/03/us_to_help_fund.html and “U.S. Developing Port & Highway ‘Master Plan’”
http://tpr.typepad.com/thepeacockreport/2006/06/us_developing_p.html for another look at these questionable initiatives.
Tom Turnipseed, I think highly of you, but give any contracts to Halliburton?? After what they’ve done with our money in Iraq? I don’t think so. We need competitive bidding from reputable firms, which excludes Halliburton. And scary as it is to wait, not a good idea to do it while the Bush administration is in office. New Orleans anyone?
Throughout his life, everything Bush has gotten his hands on has turned into garbage.
22 pounds of manure per day for every horse. That is not my idea of an improvement on the pollution front. Read the old newspapers horseless carriages were the answer to pollution!
This is why I laugh when someone says the market and technology are going to solve our problems. It will take careful planning, energy conservation, and useful regulation to safely take any advantage of technology.
Bush bankrupted Texas when he was Gov.
Now he has bankrupted the US as president.
Gee, I really want the Iraq people to have our money to make their country better…. Oh wait… Their country is worse than before we got in there and so is our country. What part of “up yours” don’t we get. We sit on our fat duffs and just let the Politicians give our money to the Rich. Who cares? Obviously not the American people. Bend over and kiss you middle class Duff goodbye.
I will take the manure over global warming any day. Manure can be dried to be used as a cooking fuel, and is wonderful in the garden. Horses are self-perpetuating, and if worse comes to worse, you can’t eat your car.
Technology is a crutch we have become dependant upon, instead of learning to walk again. We will not be able to support a modern technological society in the coming years (sorry, no shiny Star Trek(tm) futures) with the limited amount of resources we will have.
We should be asking the population of Baghdad how to get along with no water, no power and no government. We will be joining them soon enough.
We can just No Bid contract it out to Cheney’s old company Haliburton. Then it will only cost 10 times as much and we will get shoddy workmanship that will fall apart. Now THAT is privatization and outsourcing!
It must be just some crazy coincidence but if I didn’t know better, I could swear that those two TRILLION in tax cuts for the wealthiest … used to pay for something.
Soon, riding a bicycle will be a political statement - if it isn’t already…
Why worry about infrastructure? The chances of dying in a bridge collapse are about 10,000,000:1
Chances of dying in a traffic accident are 60:1. It is pointless to worry about collapsing bridges when you are most likely to expire from a heart attack,cancer,stroke, or traffic accident. Be aware of the REAL RISKS in life! Remember that 50 angry Arabs can destroy the USA.
What are the chances of dying from terrorism? They seem to be high enough to justify costly wars.
sjc: right on!
It is not the odds, it is the indications. People see the deterioration of our infrastructure as a symptom of a much larger problem. We spend money on the Pentagon, tax breaks for the rich and Iraq like crazy, but we seem to have no money for schools, housing, health care or other necessities. People sense that something is very wrong and they are right.
“In our throwaway society, we manufacture and build to last just a short time.” Scarlet Pimpernel, you seem to be implying that the 35W bridge was built shoddily… I don’t think that’s true… the infrastructure for the automobile requires a LOT of maintenance, and deferred maintenance ALWAYS creates the need for more extensive and expensive maintenance down the line. This is especially true in a place like Minneapolis, where the concrete is weakened by extreme temperatures in both winter and summer; the steel is weakened by enthusiastic use of salt to melt roadway ice and snow in the winter; and the whole structure is weakened by greater-than-average usage by heavy loaded tractor-trailers 24/7/365.
Every story I’ve read on the 35W collapse has been followed by bloggers from all over the country saying they KNOW that their bridges are in trouble: in Indiana, South Carolina, the SF Bay, Seattle’s Alaska Way Viaduct (still hasn’t been fixed since the Nisqually earthquake)… ladies and gentlemen, ideologies have consequences, and here is what they look like. When your ideology says that you can’t get elected if you “raise” taxes, ever, that means there will be less money to fund necessary work, like keeping the roads safe. There won’t be enough money to respond adequately to disasters, like Category 5 hurricanes. Katrina & 35W are what Republican domestic policy looks like in tangible form.
I agree with some of the posters here that this is a crux moment for American transportation policy. The best response to the 35W collapse might be to NOT REPLACE the six-lane highway over the river, and begin an aggressive campaign to transition Minnesota’s economy to a local, sustainable and public transit-based one. It won’t happen, though, because the current governor is not just a Republican but an all-around dips***. And he takes his marching orders from suburbanites who can’t imagine how to live without two or three cars per household. Sigh.
Everything that humans make crumbles. The ancient structures turn to dust without maintenance. All the dams, bridges and roads will turn into rubble over time without care and rebuilding.
These are the forces of nature working in opposition to what humankind is trying to do, tame nature and make it do what the human race wants it to do. It is futile and we should know what.
Nature has time on its side and we can never “win”. We can only build and maintain what we need today. This is one of the many reasons why you can not safely store nuclear waste for 10,000 years.
I’m in Southern California and over the last 10 years privately built and owned toll roads have been built or are being lengthened. The companies that build and control toll roads around here have given a lot of money to the local politicians to allow them to be built. I’m sure the same has happened in other parts of the country where there are more toll roads, bridges, and tunnels. I know in other places usually the state or city controls these things, but who knows. It’s possible they won’t in the future.
Maybe the government is allowing the roads and bridges to deteriorate so that they can “justify” privatizing the infrastructure as well.
“drown it in a bathtub” - Grover Norquist. Getting closer.
I tried to talk with my daughter-in-law about changing what’s going on, but she told me between work, caring for her developmentally disabled daughter, helping her developmentally disabled brother-in-law, and her household responsibilities, she has no time or energy. She will just vote for the “lesser of two evils’ (her words) and whatever happens happens. Meanwhile, she has a hospital job with inadequate benefits, inadequate pay, and childcare problems. She agreed that she feels apathetic and powerless. She can’t see the solution is in her hands.
But she did tell me that if Bush tries to turn this place into a dictatorship she and everyone else won’t stand for it. I said I think it’s already a dictatorship, but no one is noticing and she agreed. I decided this conversation wasn’t worth having.
This response is to Pundit. The odds you give for accidents concerning infrastructure, I have no problem with. But to be concerned with “50 angry Arabs” is a problem. The blowback from Iraq (and other Middle East issues) will not be felt in this nation until 12-30 years from now. In the meantime the other issues (heart attacks, diabetes and strokes)plus continued neglect of our crumbling infrastructure, will kill millions of Americans combined. All this before 50 Arabs will destroy us. Thank You