"Today, there more than 47,000 miles in the Interstate Highway system, built at
a cost of over $2.5 million dollars per mile. I have my qualms about the
Interstates, particularly the way they -- unlike the high-speed highways of most
other nations -- penetrate into the heart of cities, the way they advantage
trucking over other forms of transport, and the ways they've encouraged the
enormous problems of sprawl. Still, the creation of that system represents an
enormous achievement, as do all the great bridges that span rivers and harbors,
and the beautiful system of National Parks with their grand old lodges. It also
represents an enormous obligation. Politicians are all too eager to put their
names on some new stretch of four-lane, or some new bridge, and occasionally
even deign to designate some new park land. There's barely a public construction
site in this country that's not studded with signs informing you of the
officials who brought home that stretch of concrete bacon. But when it comes to
maintaining the highways, inspecting those bridges, and keeping those lodges in
repair... that's not so sexy."
Could the number one factor in the failing of the 94W bridge be political vanity. That politicians would rather spend money on new projects that could bear their name as a testimony for their deeds. I think that when they do rebuild the bridge they should make sure that it retains the name it had before (yeah plenty of bridges have names that we don't know about) or remain nameless if it were before. If they are going to name it after anyone, it should be named for one of the victims of this tragedy. I strongly believe this isn't about having enough money, it is about how that money gets spent.
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