Nearly 56,000 bridges called structurally deficient
Bart Jansen , USA TODAY 1:20 a.m. ET Feb. 15, 2017
AP NEW YORK INSFRASTRUCTURE-KOSCIUSZKO BRIDGE A USA NY

(Photo: Kathy Willens, AP)

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Nearly 56,000 bridges nationwide, which vehicles cross 185 million times a day, are structurally deficient, a bridge construction group announced Wednesday.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/02/15/deficient-bridges/97890324/

USA Today’s reporter Bart Jansen must have seen my post on the infrastructure I did the other day.

Officials – stick your finger in the dike

It will be a wait and see just how fast the government jumps on the necessary repairs or replacements to avoid a catastrophe.

I would say in order of importance because of safety concerns; 1 st bridges, roads, water lines and sewer lines. These entities are owned and controlled by the government, city, state and federal.

The utilities, gas, electric, phone are independently owned and should be put dated and maintained by their perspective owners.  Many times their maintenance is neglected because it shows up on their bottom line. The investors would rather see the money go into their bank accounts.

Some of the vehicles I see roaming the street owned by some utility companies are disgraceful. They do not want to spend the money to keep them up.  It is all about the $oldi folks.

It is like the guy that walks around with dirty underwear and his ass hanging out. You have to know what the inside of his house looks like.

I saw a piece on 60 minutes at least 15 years ago or more; that stated: There are gigantic water lines in the Big Apples, possibly 60″ lines or more that are so old and decayed; if a water line ever broke, the valves are so corroded they can not be shut off.  I have no idea if any repairs on them were ever done?? If I had to guess, well …..

I personally have seen 30″ lines blow up. The destruction they create is unbelievable.

This is a small example of what a water line break looks like.  From what I can see the damage was minor.

It appears that this happened on a side street. The damage is substantially worse when it happens in a downtown setting.  Aside from the surface damage, all of the basements in the area are get flooded, where many valuable and important papers are stored.

As the old saying goes: Pay me now or you ass is grass. Or something like that.

The time to start the repair and replace ball rolling is today.

Good article Bart.