Bridge Safety -- Congress Can't Pass the Buck on This One!

http://www.janereinheimer.com ^ | July 29, 2008 | Jane Reinheiemr

[quintr]

One more thing about bridges then I'll be quiet. A really good article at gobridges.com talks about the mess our nation's bridges are in -- thousands of them spanning big rivers and little creeks all across these United States. This article also reflects on how the inspection technology has changed since the National Bridge Inspection Standards came into being.

The House passed HR3999 on July 24, 2008. It's now headed for the Senate. When this resolution came out of the House it contained eleven amendments, several of which were clarifying points of language.

However, Amendment 6 encourages states that receive Federal funding to develop corrosion mitigation and prevention plans. These states, probably all of them, will have to increase state budgets to accommodate this provision since they probably aren't doing any corrosion mitigation plans right now.

Amendment 10 says that no workers can be employed in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Well, good! Maybe this tag-on amendment needs to be in every bill that comes out of congress, just to be on the safe side.

And Amendment 11 creates a National Tunnel Inspection Program. Well, if you weren't claustrophobic before, consider that possibility. Are they trying to tell us that tunnels have not been inspected all this time?

But I may have to retract what I said about the 110th Congress being a bunch of do nothings. This bridge legislation needed to happen since the Motor Fuel Tax Funds were being used up for God knows what else. Congress apparently wasn't repairing any bridges with the money.

But wait! I heard on the news last night that Americans drove 9.6 billion miles less in May of this year than in May of last year. Thanks to the knuckleheaded foot stamping of Speaker Pelosi who refuses to consider any possibility of offshore drilling, millions of Americans can't afford to go on vacation this summer because of the high price of gasoline. Maybe the tourism boards and hotel boards will force Nancy to step aside. If not, then for sure, November gives us a chance to run her party off the podium up there under The Dome.

read more: http://www.gobridges.com/article.asp?id=2819

read more: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-3999

Duke University has some interesting data that show driver miles are decreasing. And there's also a special mention of our favorite car, the Focus. We've been driving a Focus for six plus years now and are getting really good mileage. I think we're averaging 32 mpg. But that included our quick trip out to Colorado for a funeral. The average mpg usually hangs around 30 mpg for in-town driving. And boy, I'll tell you, the Focus has a lot of ooomph on the interstates. Ford must have engineered some kind of stay-puts into the Focus because we don't even feel wind grabbers when we go around big rigs, even on wet pavements.

read more: http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/nicholas/insider/thegreengrok/drivingstats

So how much do Americans drive? Well, in 2007, the cumulative vehicle driven miles added up to 955.3 billion. In 2008, through April, that number added up to 934.8.

read more: http://www.glassbytes.com/newsMiles20080709.htm

Less miles driven equal less gas purchased equals less tax collected. So now the feds are going to use the Chicago method of getting budget money. That is, as bus riders decrease the Chicago Transit Authority increases the cost per ride. And because the ticket price goes up, the number of riders decrease. And that continues until it gets to be cheaper to drive to work. That meant more clogged freeways. But the Motor Fuel Tax Fund swelled up so who cared.

Except when gas hit $4+ a gallon, then people started riding the busses again. Then the feds moaned that they weren't collecting enough tax money to fix bridges. So they passed a bill that will cost taxpayers about $8 between now and 2012. They didn't say whether that was $8 a year or $8 over the cost of the time period. My guess is it's the cost per year. Or probably, given budget overruns on federal projects, it might just be the cost for each session that congress is seated.

Who knows! But we do need safe bridges. Especially if Americans are out there driving billions of miles a year on our freeways and tollways, as well as country roads.

The feds just better make sure they keep these roads safe for the driving public. Even if it means that they have to give up sending money to all those aggrandizing projects that are named after themselves.