I guess now they can get the funds together to replace this outdated bridge. It is a shame those we have elected to be smart are not smart, wait until we get caught and then run out and replace one bridge which has been damaged beyond repair. We never needed to be in a war in Iraq, lots of money spent there, we did not need to attemp to build a road in Afghanistan and then abandon later when we have our infrastructure, 37 votes on repealing ACA, witchhunt hearings and on and on.

to get to the workplaces and yet the corps don't take any responsibility
for paying taxes to fund upkeep....I suppose paying for upkeeps would
cut into the profit line...therefore, negligence is necessary.

What really scares me is the Ship Canal Bridge on the north end of Seattle. It is a multi-deck bridge over 100 feet tall. There is no way anyone could survive that fall. The sad part is, that I believe Washington State is probably one of the best states in the country as it pertains to inspecting and up-grading bridges. It worries me to think of people in the "Third World" states where conservative legislators won't spend a dime on up-grades so they brag about not raising taxes. I hope this serves as a wake up call, but I'm sure it won't. They'll just find a way to put the blame on President Obama.

tragedies, of course, and the flurry of MSM talking heads and opportunistic politicians looking for $$$$$, but the SOS continues. As my Mom used to say, 'actions speak louder than words.' And we have a congress full of many loons, and state governments are not, generally, much better.

To be fair I'm quoting last night's Seattle news so can't link, but I agree with you about being unnerved by the state of the whole country's bridges and roads. We have so much money and so many people who need work. If we could SOMEHOW just get the two of them together...wait...tax and create jobs, you say? HERESY!

not as frequent as California, but they can be sizable -- and they say there have been magnitude 9 quakes in the past.

I mean, tight as a drum.

If Mt. Rainier goes—as it will someday—it will take out much of Olympia and Tacoma.

way to "Idiocracy." It will take several generations to get the US back on track, but anymore I seriously doubt that is going to happen 'till the US hits rock bottom. Greed, selfishness and corruption runs far too deep and often TPTB is right in the middle of it all.

Shit happens. And all the taxes in the world would not have helped.

Unless someone has a link that shows repairs were stopped
because of some tax not being paid.

In that particular case an oversized load certainly contributed, but it spotlighted a very real and well documented issue. Because of geography we have a great many bridges and many of them are out of date and under stress.

ONE girder is hit by a truck? That's not the way these things are supposed to work, dear.

If it was hit on day one of the bridge opening when it was new, the same thing would have happened.

The ONLY thing at issue here is that the bridge design is antiquated. Modern bridges would not be constructed in this manner. For this reason.

we didn't HAVE a modern bridge.

Sheesh.

I can think of at least 4 on I-5 off the top of my head.
Considerable capital investment to replace them all. Which, has been happening over time.

Our politicians are buying drones, bombs, and surveillance equipment, instead.

We'd still have to rip the money out of the jaws of the 1% either way.

They only allow that money to be spent on the war stuff because they profit from that too.

but you certainly aren't being clear about why. First you argue that the oversized load was the problem. Then you argue that a lot of bridges are this way. Now you argue that we have to grab the money out of the jaws of the One Percent anyway, but the budgets aren't connected.

What the hell is your point? The point of people here is that money in this wealthy country is being squandered for the profit of oligarchs. You appear to agree. So what is your point?

I thought we more or less just agreed. (And I realize that's a form of arguing to say that right there, sorry)


I would like to replace these bridges, but the money that went to that other stuff didn't eat into the money for the bridges. These are local priorities in tax structure. I just pointed out that if the wars and drones and such were over today, the money wouldn't be freed up for these projects. You and I will still have to go and kick, claw, bite, and otherwise get that money appropriated to this issue.

All budgets reflect priorities, and policies at the federal level intimately affect the tax base and mandates and priorities of cities and states. To pretend that pouring vast, unconscionable portions of the overall wealth of this nation into the war machine does not affect the health of cities and states and their ability to maintain necessary services is just not consistent with reality.

But the idea that we can't spend at the federal level for fear of neglect of other things, even on the national credit card, is the sort of logic the right used to pass the sequester.

There's no direct link between federal spending on the WoT, and the state of funding bridges of Washington State. In this context, I find 'intimately affect' to be substitutable with 'un-provable'.

We're in the realm of 'no hard numbers' here because we are not spending within the budget of our income. WoT spending doesn't preclude a jobs program or infrastructure investment even at the federal level. It's a pack of assholes in the Congress doing it. And you HAVE to know they'd fight those programs just as hard even if we weren't spending on wars.

I want the wars ended, for humanitarian reasons if not also budgetary reasons. But I do not believe for one second that ending them and ceasing spending on the wars, the drones, the deployments, the bases, taking all of that away is not going to free up one penny for infrastructure investment at ANY level of the government, local, state, or federal.

This issue is separate, and must be fought, and must be fought TODAY, not tomorrow, or when the wars are over, or when we feel like the budget 'is better', etc. It's austerity-like thought to assume the pie is perfectly round, and one slice MUST eat into the other. They don't have to. Some people pretend to (not an accusation against you personally, at all.) for largely political reasons, not budgetary/fiscal reasons.

American Society of Civil Engineers' 2013 infrastructure report card
http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/

say stuff needs to be redesigned?

Wow.

A truck hauling an oversized load struck an overhead bridge girder on the major interstate between Seattle and Canada, sending a section of the span and two vehicles into the Skagit River below. All three occupants suffered only minor injuries.

It happened about 7 p.m. Thursday on the north part of the four-lane Interstate 5 bridge near Mount Vernon, about 60 miles north of Seattle and 40 miles south of the Canada border, and disrupted travel in both directions.

Initially, it wasn't clear if the bridge just gave way on its own. But at an overnight news conference, Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste blamed it on a tractor-trailer carrying an oversize load that hit an upper part of the span. The vertical clearance from the roadway to the beam is 14.6 feet.

Read the rest at: http://news.yahoo.com/wash-5-bridge-collapse-caused-oversize-load-130116006.html

Like many accidents of this sort, it will be a chain of unfortunate circumstance and culpability.

And they're in Washington state.

Sadly this is too far north to affect many of their commuters. Maye if Steve Ballmer had to take a twenty-mile detour to get to work, he'd wake up.

Built a multi-million dollar off-ramp here in Issaquah even.

But yes, the lack of tax revenue can affect distant bridges like this one.

MIRABEAU- Necker's financial plan 1789

two centuries(2 georgee terms) of plunder + abuse have dug the abyss which threatens to engulf the nation.it must be filled up--this terrible chasm. but how? here is the list of proprietors. choose from the WEALTHIEST, in order that the SMALLEST NUMBER OF CITIZENS MAY BE SACRIFICED. but choose! shall not a few perish, that the MASS of the peoprle be saved? come, then! here are 2000 notables, shose property will supply the deficit. restore order to your finances; peace + prosperity to the kingdom! strike! IMMOLATE, without mercy, these 'unfortunate' victims! hurl them into the abyss!-it closes!

there is more as i read on.

Wasn't there a job program proposed that would have started dealing with the crumbling infrastructure?

if we'd elected enough Democrats to actually FIGHT for that jobs program, starting at the top.

I don't know what else to do anymore.

At least some of those bridges are being replaced, but not fast enough - we've got some infrastructure in truly sorry shape.

Our Government is totally corrupted by special interests and we bitch and moan about each individual issue as they get their 15 minutes of attention, yet the common sense solutions are not what they do b/c the special interests take precedence of the people. Lets focus only on the underlying cause of all of these issues. Each time an issue like this comes up, instead of demanding more money for infrastructure (if they do anything it will be way too little and the contractors will screw us on those projects because they have Lobbyist too), we keep demanding COMPLETE CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM (CCFR)!!! We need to public ally finance elections to stop most of the corruption. Only then will we be able to get our Representative Government back! The corporations and billionaires control our government and will not give up without a fight. Please join me in spreading the word about CCFR. We can start the groundswell to fight back. This is an issue that people from the WHOLE POLITICAL SPECTRUM can get behind!