Governors warn that Congress impedes repairs for crumbling roads

West Hawii Today ^ | 7-15-2014 | Mark Niquette

[Citizen Zed]

Congress should approve a short-term fix before the federal highway account becomes insolvent by the end of August. Yet they want a longer solution to remove uncertainly that could stop or delay projects worth an estimated $3.6 trillion to fix crumbling roads and bridges.

It affects the work needed to create jobs and boost the economy while repairing outdated infrastructure to avoid disasters such as the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse that killed 13 people and injured 145.

“I don’t have confidence in anything that goes on in Washington, D.C. right now,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, told reporters.

[Citizen Zed]

Chris Christie is a Republican?

[DownInFlames]

What happened to the $750b stimulus passed in 2009? Oh yeah, it was pissed away by Obama.

[Olog-hai]

There is a reason the epithet “RINO” came to be.

[j. earl carter]

Reference to the bridge collapse is an outright lie. The bridge collapsed due to faulty construction (that took decades to become evident); not due to lack of maintenance.

There is no amount of maintenance that would have stopped the bridge from failing.

[KarlInOhio]

Maybe the states could insist that the federal government get out of the road business, tax the gasoline themselves and decide what projects need to be done rather than the current situation where they don't seem to be able to fill a pot hole or pour a new sidewalk without getting a federal grant, which puts needed maintenance aside while they have lobbyists shake their tin cups at Congress and the Department of Transportation.

Money doesn't become sacred when dipped in the waters of the Potomac. Instead much of it just washes away. Ohio would do far better with a 46.4¢/gallon tax than 28¢ with the other 18.4¢ taxed by Washington, tossed around and then finally allowed to trickle back with all sorts of strings attached on what it can be spent on and rules on how it can be spent.

[BenLurkin]

Here’s a novel thought — let the state fix their roads.

Taking money from Wyoming to pay for roads in Nebraska never made any sense in the first place.

Eisenhower wanted to be able to move troops and equipment efficiently and build interstates under the aegis of national defense — it was the nose in the tent of Federal involvement where it now gets the hell out of.

[minnesota_bound]

They have plenty of money for everything but the basics.
The 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse is mentioned about every month in the local paper Star & Tribune along with the need for more bike lanes and “light rail” and more stadiums.

[Cboldt]

IIRC, there was also an issue of local overloading by a construction crew that had staged tons of material in a small area. Wiki has a pretty good write up. A few variables contributed to the incident, and some of the prior year inspections identified signs of structural overloading.