I-35 bridge collapes, in Minneapolis Options

[jwttu]

So the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed during rush hour. They said on the news that there were probably 50-100 cars fell into the Mississippi river.

I guess this makes my 2hr commute today not seem so bad

[Hartmann]

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/0...e.side.view.cnn

Video of the collapse...

I will say this, the infrastructure of this country has slowly been going down the pot over the last 30 years. The freeway system, the rail system, etc. all suffer from deteriorating conditions.

I think of it this way. In the 60's and 70's we were going to the moon, now we're struggling to put people in orbit.

[jwttu]

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/0...e.side.view.cnn

Video of the collapse...

I will say this, the infrastructure of this country has slowly been going down the pot over the last 30 years. The freeway system, the rail system, etc. all suffer from deteriorating conditions.

I think of it this way. In the 60's and 70's we were going to the moon, now we're struggling to put people in orbit.

the rail system (condition wise is actually pretty good), of course the condition depends on the Railroad company that owns it. They are also adding lots of new track along the transcon track to handle bigger loads. Most derailments are caused by HFI (human factor incidents) and not the physical condition of the track.

Heres some info on interstates

The federal government provides 80 percent of the money for construction, repair and maintenance of the so-called federal-aid highway system including Interstate highways and bridges. But states set priorities and handle construction and maintenance contracts

i know that us highways which are seperate from interstates have significantly less federal money. The you have all the state highways/farm roads/etc which are paid with with state money. Then county and city roads.

The main source of revenue for roads and bridges, the federal highway trust fund, is failing to keep up with spending demand. The 18.3 cents a gallon in federal taxes hasn't changed since 1993, and the demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles could affect fuel consumption.

And this is why things most likely won't change. With gas prices going up people will not want to increase the gas tax.