[Alberta's Child]

I'm a little dissapointed in the WSJ because they overlooked the single most relevant fact about the I-35W bridge collapse in terms of Federal funding.

When the U.S. Department of Transportation provides funding for a major project in a specific jurisdiction (state, county, municipality, or any combination of these), it does so with the explicit understanding that THE JURISDICTION IN QUESTION IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE.

All that Beltway talk about how the war in Iraq has some relation to a collapsed bridge in Minneapolis is a lot of sh!t. The USDOT simply does not pay for maintenance and upkeep of existing infrastructure that lies in a state or local jurisdiction.

[umgud]

Let’s not forget that money WAS being spent on the bridge, quite literally, as it was going down, in spite of all the money being expended in Iraq. Of course you could argue the money should have been spent on it’s structure rather than its surface...........