Posted by
Michael on Sunday, September 16, 2007 11:52:56 PM
This column was written over a month ago, but being how things can be sometimes, it didn't get out until late. I think plenty of people are still thinking about this, so my column still has an audience:
In the wake of the Minneapolis tragedy, transportation safety was
widely discussed. The bridge collapse was so destructive and tragic
that one has to wonder if bridges from New York to Washington state are
in as much risk as the one that collapsed.
Unfortunately,
politics and partisanship became the knee-jerk reaction of many elected
officials. Before the bodies had even been completely counted, Senate
leaders were already connecting decades of local infrastructure
mistakes and oversights throwing blame around on each other.
Washington state's own teacher-turned-senator, Patty Murray, blamed the
tragedy on a political tug-of-war over an infrastructure bill: "The
lack of investment in infrastructure is frightening. This is what Bush
is threatening to veto - investment in infrastructure for roads we go
to work on every day."
Murray's comments bring up images in
one's mind of Dubya crouched in the Oval Office, rubbing his hands
together as he devises elaborate plans to kill rush-hour drivers.
CLOSER TO HOME
Efforts
did get rolling, however, to make sure what happened in Minneapolis
didn't repeat in a major city like Seattle. Gov. Christine Gregoire has
taken an approach of less risk-taking.
On Aug. 2, Gregoire
asked for a report on all 3,000 of Washington's bridges. After seeing
what happened in Minneapolis, Gregoire become particularly concerned
about the state Route 520 bridge across Lake Washington and the Alaskan
Way Viaduct along Elliott Bay.
With all the hubbub we've heard
about the viaduct for the last few years, concerns over its safety
could speed up its repair or replacement.
The Lake Washington
Ship Canal Bridge, which was built more than three decades ago, has
received inspection recommendations from the U.S. Department of
Transportation. Inspections of that particular bridge took place in
mid-August of this year, and results are not yet available.
Those
results could raise safety concerns, but for now local officials seem
satisfied. King County bridge inspection head Tim Lane has said that
the bridge is "pretty well built."
The state Route 99/Aurora
Bridge over the ship canal has raised concerns, as well. Harvey
Coffman, the state head of bridge inspections, has said that the bridge
is "functionally obsolete."
A MINNEAPOLIS HERE?
Most people would agree that the inspection process needs to be thorough for anything significant to come about.
Minneapolis
had passed bridge inspections for years, according to the International
Herald Tribune, only to collapse into ruin recently.
Most
people in the press aren't engineers by any stretch of the imagination,
but both pundits and reporters are familiar with government putting
bandages on a sore in order to look like they are solving the problem.
In
an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Redmond driver David
Wotten expressed his wide-ranging concern: "Frankly, every bridge over
40 years old is suspect in my mind."
Wotten may be right, and unless inspections are followed up by action, what happened in Minneapolis could happen again.
Madison Valley resident Michael Powell can be reached at mptimes@nwlink.com. He also has a web log at deschamps.townhall.com.