Thursday, August 02, 2007

Thoughts On The 35W Bridge Collapse

I have been across that bridge hundreds of times. My thoughts are with the families this morning.

Every truck driver thinks about something like this happening and wonders what they would do. None of them know.

This bridge was barely 40 years old. Parts of our Interstate Highway System are 10 years older than that. Parts of our freeway system are nearly 15 years older than that. Most were not built to carry the loads at the speeds that are being carried today. None of the projections that I see are calling for fewer trucks and cars on the roads in 10 or 20 or 30 years in the future.

Aging infrastructure costs more to rebuild than to maintain.

Update: From Lileks at Strib: This doesn't happen in America.

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