THE GOP IS WORKING HARD TO MAKE AMERICA INTO A 3rd WORLD NATION

…Here’s a Pennsylvania arch bridge that actually has another structure built under it to catch falling chunks of bridge debris from landing on the Interstate.

 

Fixing our failing infrastructure could provide hundreds of thousands of jobs for hard working Americans.

I have been asking for the last few years, “What is it going to take to wake up our Republican-run US Congress for fixing this nation’s dissolving infrastructure?” 

I now find it appropriate and ironic that the Federal Highway Administration has revealed that secondary steel support beams of the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Washington DC were so corroded that they no longer met load-bearing standards.  This famous concrete bridge’s deck has also suffered “serious corrosion deterioration” that is so advanced that two lanes will be closed for up to nine months for emergency repairs.  In addition, the bridge’s new, lowered 10-ton load limit, effectively bars thousands of visitors from riding local tour buses from Arlington Cemetery to the Lincoln Memorial.

Yes folks, this is the same iconic bridge that crosses the Potomac River that many of our congresspersons have to cross every day in getting to their offices in the nation’s Capital.

Oh, and the destruction doesn’t stop there.

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has now identified 61,064 structurally deficient bridges across the country, and federal data shows that 14 of those bridges are in the DC area.  As an example, the H Street Bridge near the Union Station, the capital’s main train station, is so corroded that its re-bar is exposed in the bridge’s under-decking.

Now, most likely, only the local residents even know where the H street bridge is located.  But in some ways, it is much more important than the Arlington Memorial Bridge.  That’s because the H Street Bridge is vital to the region’s transportation network. Amtrak, the MARC (Maryland Area Regional Commuter) and Metro trains travel beneath it in order to reach Union Station. Further deterioration would dramatically affect rail transportation in this highly important Northeast Rail Corridor.

Why does the Republican do-nothing congress not understand about the potential ticking-time-bomb of our nation’s dissolving infrastructure that they are ignoring?  And it’s not just the bridges.  It’s the Interstate Highway System, the nation’s major airports, schools, railways, and a host of other dissolving items. 

 

Of all the world’s countries, our nation’s infrastructure is now rated 16^th in the world.  That’s only a couple places above having third-world status.  That’s pretty disgusting for the country that use to set the infrastructure standard for all other countries.

When I was still traveling for business outside of the country, I was regularly depressed when I would return from China, Japan, Singapore or Europe.  The airports that I left from in those countries were beautiful, fully functional and up to date.  But when arriving back in the US at JFK or La Guardia in New York, Newark Airport in New Jersey or at LAX on the West Coast, what a let-down for arriving in the greatest nation on earth. 

 

It’s almost like arriving back home in a 1940’s Humphry Bogart movie.  In fact some of the scenes of the airports in the Indiana Jones movies look about right for how these major US airports look today.  And don’t get me started about traveling by rail in the US versus those other industrialized nations.

Most of the Democratic members of Congress agree that it’s time to pass a comprehensive, long-term transportation bill that fully addresses the decaying of our nation’s infrastructure. And structural corrosion planning must be a major part of that mission. Just look at today’s scaffolding on the nation’s Capitol Dome. The core of the dome’s crisis lies in the need for this same corrosion-control planning,

The safety and longevity of the US transportation infrastructure is one issue that should be thoroughly nonpartisan. After years of delay in even funding a comprehensive highway bill, Congress must act…..but will they?  It’s not looking very good at this time.

To date, I have yet to hear that any of those in either branch of the Republican controlled US Congress have any priority for fixing and updating our deteriorating national infrastructure.  And a bill for doing this could also offer openings for thousands of blue-collar jobs across the nation. 

But the GOP’s congressional members would never support anything that might look like a political “win” for a Democratic president with the national election coming in 2016.

It’s pretty sad when partisan issues totally trump the nation’s real basic needs.  How many innocent Americans must die from bridge or other infrastructure failures before the US Congress gets off their ass?

Copyright G.Ater  2016