again with the bridges

I live in Minnesota. You may or may not remember the 35W Bridge collapse occurring in my state back on August 4th, 2007. I know that I and every other person in Minnesota remembers that day. I was on my way to test-drive the car that I now own when while listening to MPR when the BBC world news did its hourly report or however often they happen to review the top news stories. It was the lead story on the British Broadcasting Corporation. It was surreal to to be listening to a local channel broadcasting a foreign news service's lead story coming from approximately 20 miles away.

What was worse was the fact that all of my friends have traveled across that bridge at least once in their life, like 75% travel on it at least once monthly for some reason or another and a large chunk of friends use it on a weekly basis if not 5 days a week. I even some have friends that live very close to there and used it multiple times a day. When I returned home I was glued to the television watching the rescue and recovery all night and for many more days. There was a bus filled with children and miraculasly only 13 people died in this travesty. I'm not downplaying that number, I just know what that thing looked like at that time of day and it easily could have been 100 dead. I don't want that again and Minnesota doesn't either but today it has become apparent that our infrastructure is decomposing below our tires.

The above links are about the state having to shut down another bridge. This bridge is an artery for the city of St. Cloud. I should know, I went to school there. I lived in the dorms for a year, just off campus for another two and downtown for for the final year and a half. I never lived more than 2 or 3 miles from that bridge and used it religiously. At the moment I travel over the Hastings bridge a minimum of 4 times a week. This issue must be dealt with immediatly. How many more bridges are in need of extensive repair or replacement and just haven't been found? How many need to fall before the government figures out how to hire someone other than Sverdrup & Parcel to build our bridges?

Hey America... Who built the Louisiana Superdome? The same guys that built two faulty bridges in Minnesota. The Superdome held up well, but the inspectors might want to take a closer look at it considering the shoddy workmanship its maker has exhibited in past work and the damage and the beating it took from the hurricane. Also, people crossing the Amelia Earhart Memorial Bridge in Atchison, Kansas and the Sidney Lanier Bridge in Brunswick, Georgia as well as people traveling the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel should be warned about possible flaws in the design.

I can't believe that more than one third of my life was spent crossing one crumbling bridge or another on an almost daily basis. I think the roads are trying to eat me.