Bridges and Other Disasters

[selenite0]

Popular Mechanics has an essay by Stephen Flynn on infrastructure problems in America. All true. We've got more disasters coming, I'm afraid. The trick is going to be making it easier for state legislators to get re-elected by funding maintenance instead of sponsoring nifty new projects.

Comments

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Gee, I think it worked pretty well in Los Angeles after the '94 quake. ^__^ Nobody wants to get squished!

[selenite.livejournal.com]

So how do we get the voters to care before a major disaster?

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

I don't think we CAN. And I shudder to think of what will happen just before we finally decide to take maintenance/replacement of our *water* infrastructure seriously. Especially if the Major Disaster that mobilizes the masses happens in, say, Nevada or Arizona.

[thegameiam.livejournal.com]

Believe me, I agree. In the DC area, the new Wilson Bridge is the first new Potomac crossing built in 30 years, and it's only a little bit wider than the one it's replacing. In that time, the population has tripled, and the average commute time has gone from 20 minutes to 1.5 hours. Not a good thing, in my opinion.

In this area we suffer because DC is the redheaded stepchild of the US, and Md and Va can't agree on pretty much anything - let alone how to accomodate the ~ 1m people who go from one to the other daily.