I-35 bridge collapes, in Minneapolis Options

[Melanie]

oh, and I just drove on 35 between Austin and Dallas... they're working on parts of it, but other than that, it's actually really nice.

[Melanie]

Yes, for new roads or extensions of the roads the federal government funds them but I thought maintenance (filling pot holes, safety barricades, etc.) was funded with state money.

Nope, completely Federal. They allocate the monies to gen. contracting companies to fix them, lowest bidder wins. My dad deals with them every September.

[Hartmann]

oh, and I just drove on 35 between Austin and Dallas... they're working on parts of it, but other than that, it's actually really nice.

Up near West, and a little south of there it's probably the most dangerous and rolling piece of highway out there. I drove it every other weekend last summer and hated it.

[Hartmann]

Nope, completely Federal. They allocate the monies to gen. contracting companies to fix them, lowest bidder wins. My dad deals with them every September.

So when TxDOT says they can't get money to fix things in Houston it's because the federal government won't give them cash?

Learn something new every day.

[Melanie]

So when TxDOT says they can't get money to fix things in Houston it's because the federal government won't give them cash?

Learn something new every day.

that's the state that won't give them cash

Up near West, and a little south of there it's probably the most dangerous and rolling piece of highway out there. I drove it every other weekend last summer and hated it.

I drove on it on Monday, seemed fine to me. *shrugs* Maybe it was way too early and way too little sleep for me to realize it was bad. I hadn't driven it in ages so I guess I can't give a good enough judgment on it, but it seemed fine.

[blaarg]

Last I checked, the Shuttle was still using computers built in the 1980's... If another industry was to do the same thing they'd call them nuts. It costs more to put the Shuttle in orbit one time than it cost for a moon landing.

Where do you find that they haven't replaced the systems on the shuttle since the 80s...?

[blaarg]

and another point about the "declining" space program...
didn't we put a unmanned rover on fucking Mars not a while back?

[Hartmann]

and another point about the "declining" space program...
didn't we put a unmanned rover on fucking Mars not a while back?

Yeah, we put two on Mars... One buried itself 30 ft. into the ground because someone programmed it wrong. Fantastic use of funds

[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.

[Hartmann]

jwttu,

Thanks for the correction. I was reading the Washington Post this morning and they pointed out the money comes from the federal government and there is plenty of the money to go around... The problem is that the states decide how to spend it. (Katrina)

My whole point is that we are already politicizing this thing and it doesn't need to happen. It's a tragedy, yes. But let people mourn, I mean there are still people in the river and already we're playing the blame game... This makes us look more and more like Brazil with their airline troubles. Who can point the finger faster.

"It's Bush's fault! He hates black people and cars sitting on bridges!"

People are saying he's spending too much time thinking about the war and not enough about our infrastructure... Yeah, I think our infrastructure is getting worse but I doubt Bush sits in his office twiddling his thumbs, rocking back and forth, thinking about the war.

The bridge was found to be deficient in 1990 http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRI...-08-02-15-31-57

And hasn't passed since.

Oh, and the Brooklyn Bridge recently failed its inspection... Guess I should stay off that one

[impala454]

Yeah, we put two on Mars... One buried itself 30 ft. into the ground because someone programmed it wrong. Fantastic use of funds

actually that's why they built two of them, completely independent of one another. for redundancy. it was only a bonus if both made it there, and the fact that the pathfinder operated for way longer than intended is a good testament to how well designed they were.

[impala454]

The bridge was found to be deficient in 1990 http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRI...-08-02-15-31-57

right and 17 years later it collapses. there's way too much speculation and way too little fact. how about someone grab up these facts and post em:

What does it mean for a bridge to be declared "deficient"?

How many bridges in the US have been declared "deficient" in the past 20 years?

What is necessary to fix a "deficient" bridge?

Who's responsibility is it to fix a "deficient" bridge?

imho this story is so stupid. but unfortunately it seems to be the only damn thing anyone can talk about. i think we had more people murdered in houston in the past two days than died on that bridge.

[schwab]

right and 17 years later it collapses. there's way too much speculation and way too little fact. how about someone grab up these facts and post em:

What does it mean for a bridge to be declared "deficient"?

How many bridges in the US have been declared "deficient" in the past 20 years?

What is necessary to fix a "deficient" bridge?

Who's responsibility is it to fix a "deficient" bridge?

imho this story is so stupid. but unfortunately it seems to be the only damn thing anyone can talk about. i think we had more people murdered in houston in the past two days than died on that bridge.

i agree

[Hartmann]

right and 17 years later it collapses. there's way too much speculation and way too little fact. how about someone grab up these facts and post em:

What does it mean for a bridge to be declared "deficient"?

How many bridges in the US have been declared "deficient" in the past 20 years?

What is necessary to fix a "deficient" bridge?

Who's responsibility is it to fix a "deficient" bridge?

imho this story is so stupid. but unfortunately it seems to be the only damn thing anyone can talk about. i think we had more people murdered in houston in the past two days than died on that bridge.

I agree with this and is why I posted the above.

I don't even care about fact at this point... Why not let the people who still have family members trapped in cars have a little privacy and a little less of this "OMG we gotta blame somebody" b.s.

[impala454]

Why not let the people who still have family members trapped in cars have a little privacy and a little less of this "OMG we gotta blame somebody" b.s.

because politics follows the media