If you are living in a county that has a bridge on the borderline of failure...it’s your county council, and your state officials who are responsible. The minute you go beyond that line and start expecting federal help for every single bridge or highway in America....which invokes some guy in Washington to save you....you’ve screwed up and might as well forget about things being simple.
The same is true for your teachers and the condition of your local school. Either the county board and the state are doing their job, or they are failures. If they can’t do their job....then just step down and allow the system to work.
We’ve all allowed some Jesus-political figures to seem awful big and important at the federal level. It’s time to let the locally elected guys do their job.
The Tappan Zee Bridge, is a cantilever bridge in the U.S. state of New York, crossing the Hudson River at one of its widest points. As an integral conduit within the New York Metropolitan Area, it connects South Nyack in Rockland County with Tarrytown in Westchester County in the Lower Hudson Valley.
The bridge is part of the New York State Thruway mainline and is also designated as Interstate 87 and Interstate 287. The span carries seven lanes of motor traffic.
About 140,000 vehicles cross the 3.1-mile Tappan Zee Bridge every day, with volumes as high as 170,000 during peak traffic.
If nothing is done to relieve congestion in the I-287 Corridor between Suffern and Port Chester, by 2030 traffic crossing the bridge will increase to about 200,000 cars per day.
The bridge does not meet current seismic criteria. It also does not have shoulders to accommodate emergency vehicles and breakdowns.
n 1955, the Tappan Zee Bridge was built during a period of material shortages with a 50-year life span. Although it was designed to handle a maximum capacity of 80,000 cars, the structure far exceeds the recommended limit with an average of 140,000 vehicles per day. Now seven years past its intended life cycle, the Tappan Zee Bridge is functionally obsolete and no longer able to safely meet traffic demands. Not only with the new design remedy the bridge’s lack of a shoulder and narrow lanes (widths failed to meet interstate standards), it will also include dedicated emergency lanes.
I believe there is a case for Federal support for strengthening this bridge since it is an important gateway to and from NJ, NY and CT.
“...it’s your county council, and your state officials who are responsible.”
We already pay huge gasoline taxes for roads and bridges at both the state and federal level. The real problem is that politicians piss away that $$ for votes and then claim to be broke. It’s a criminal racket up and down the line.
You are correct about this being more a state and local function. Your comment that, “If they can’t do their job....then just step down and allow the system to work,” made me smile at your naivete. It is up to us to hold them accountable. “We” are the ones failing at our jobs.