Some Questions On the Minneapolis Bridge Collapse
By Jeff Davis
A CNN article reports “In 2005, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Bridge Inventory database concluded the (I35 Minneapolis) bridge was ’structurally deficient.’ Minnesota Department of Transportation bridge engineer Dan Dorgan said the term ’structurally deficient’ is a Federal Highway Administration rating. Inspectors rate sections of the bridge on a 1 to 9 scale, with 9 being in excellent condition, he said. ‘A structurally deficient condition is a bridge that would have a rating of 4 either in the deck, the superstructure or the substructure,’ he said. ‘Any one of those in condition 4 or less is considered structurally deficient.’ ”
A recent report on the bridge noted that there were cracks in important main structural elements, which should have led to the bridge being shut down until they were repaired. The extreme temperature range in Minnesota and corrosive salts and anti-icing sprays tend to accelerate corrosion. The Minnesota Department of Transportation was repairing the road surface on the bridge, which was badly worn, but the support structure was in even worse shape. Repairing the road surface is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
This is the second spectacular failure of infra-structure under George W. Bush. Bush diverted money from levee construction around New Orleans for his Iraq War in the years before Katrina. Bush’s Kool Aid-drinking supporters all gave him a pass, repeating the mantra: “No one could have seen that hurricane coming.” Since when are we backward Third World tribesman who can’t plan ahead??? We design buildings to be safe from earthquakes; we can design levees to withstand hurricanes. There was a plan to reinforce and improve the levees. Some people did see a bigger hurricane coming, but Bush didn’t.
I have some questions regarding this mess.
Question #1: How much of the needed federal funding to maintain this bridge was diverted from the road repair budget and subsequently squandered in Iraq?
Question #2: How much of the EIGHT BILLION DOLLARS IN CASH that Bush sent to Iraq to “stabilize” their economy (and which simply disappeared) would it have required to repair this bridge properly?
Question #3: What other items of crucial infrastructure such as highways, bridges, tunnels, power grids and hospitals are now at risk because almost all our tax dollars are being poured down the Iraqi rathole or into the maws of Bush/Cheney corporate cronies such as Halliburton?
Question #4: How many illegal aliens were doing maintenance work on the bridge? Did their incompetence and lack of English and low skill standards have anything to do with the collapse?
Question #5: When is the penny going to drop that we need to GET THE HELL OUT OF IRAQ and Afghanistan, impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and place them on trial for crimes against humanity, and devote the next several generations to repairing and improving and correcting all the things that are wrong in our own country while leaving the bandit state of Israel to fend for itself?
Source: WhiteCivilRights.com
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