America's Worst Highways and Bridges

It's not that we are procrastinators. It’s that politicians establish budgets. Politicians these days seem to only come in one flavor: the career type. To a pragmatic, the career politician’s decision making skills appear to be mostly influenced by decision making that secures re-election and returning favors to their campaign supporters. A deteriorating road or bridge is always an easy target to put off until next year while the more “important” priorities are taken care of. Politicians are also skilled in passing the burden to the Federal Gov’t in the form of a request that goes unfulfilled. That way, it isn’t their fault, they “fought for you”, blah, blah, blah, and someone else did not, so feel free to re-elect. Our ignorant electorate falls for that sound byte readily, since said electorate seems to be largely ignorant of just where the Fed Gov’t gets its money.

If you “investigate” further, you should not be surprised to find communities with well maintained infrastructures to have a municipal engineer at the helm who is highly organized and whose politicians trust him/her to make budget/spending decisions without undue political influence. And while you’re at it, take a look at turnpike authorities and bridge authorities. They actually have their own dedicated revenue stream and still their infrastructure is typically deplorable. I bet their benefits packages are healthier than their facilities.

Government job creation is a funny thing. From the taxpayer’s point of view, the Government is on the liability side of the balance sheet. More government in any form is more burden for those few of us that actually produce something with our skills and raw materials. Whether it be more regulation, printing more money, debt spending, encouraging homeownership for those who have traditionally not qualified, farm subsidies, etc., every action the government has at its disposal translates into more burden for those on the asset side of the balance sheet.

When are we as taxpayers going to wake up and stop asking the Fed Gov’t officials to solve society’s problems? They are too late in the process to do any good and their tools for the task are the wrong kind. Doesn’t anyone see the correlation yet? The more we ask the Fed to do, the more taxes they have to collect or the more money they have to print (which causes inflation and devaluing of the dollar). The more the Fed collects, the less the state or locality has for its infrastructure. Then the States beg for it back, and get pennies on the dollar.

Our infrastructure is breaking down due to decades of neglect; building new and forgetting to properly maintain the old. There are a lot of administrations to blame, but shoddy maintenance and poor construction after the 50's are also to blame.

I like the idea of the government hiring out of work citizens to work on the infrastructure. They should get proper training and work much like the Postal Service. A "troop" of workers who specialize in road/bridge repair. I wonder though, if getting a job for such work would be a difficult a task as getting a job with the government is now. The process needs to be made easier.

I contend the B.Q. E. (Brooklyn – Queens expressway) is the worst road in america. What is the matter with NY and thier pot hole filled roads?

The BQE may be bad, but the Willis Avenue bridge in NYC looks like it will collapse at any moment.

I live in Chesapeake,Va and we have a bridge between Chesapeake and Portsmouth that was in such bad shape it has been closed. The local media said you could feel the bridge deck move under your feet while walking on the structure! The city stated they can no longer afford to maintain the structure.

Hey – L Adams. I'm totally with you. How do we get off the FedMoney addiction? Wanna run for president?

This sounds like a good idea, but let's make sure the work is done by legal American citizens. Sounds like a no brainer but honestly, most of the housing construction jobs and other manual labor jobs are given to many illegal workers. Now that those sectors are some of the hardest hit, we need to put as many legal unemployed workers to work and not another free subsidy for illegals. We truly must take care of our citizens first.

Believe it or not, the situation now is a lot better than it used to be. 35 years ago I spent a couple of summers inspecting county/township bridges in rural Illinois. This came from a federal mandate due to a bridge collapse across the Ohio river (late 60s or early 70s). Here are the things we often found:

1. Bridges that were ordered out of a mail order catalog circa 1900-1910. There were often no blueprints for these bridges and they weren't even designed for automobiles, let alone semis and farm machinery. We had to measure these bridges and calculate what kind of loads they could handle.

2. Bridges whose supersdtructure looked great, but had beams hanging down in the water when you looked underneath them. The road commissioners made sure that the parts people could see were nicely painted.

3. Lots of rotted out beams due to road salt.

But my favorite is that we had one bridge that had one end which was sinking ~ 2 inches per year. We couldn't understand why until we started looking at old plat maps. ~ 1850 someone had sunk a mine shaft under the place that now had a bridge. Apparently the pilons were resting in mid-air.

For L Adams- you are absolutely correct--it is time that the states (and the people) of this country stop standing around with their hands out like silly teenagers who want some money from Mom and the keys from Dad. And for Rick--horror stories!! But not unexpected when you consider, as L Adams said, that politicians are only watching out for themselves and not the people they represent and should be protecting and serving. So--where do we go from here? We elect an orator with no experience in anything. This is going to help? Puh-lese!!!

BTW Fred: Willis Ave bridge is being replaced as, as we comment. You'll have your wheels on in late next year. TBTA is spending some serious coin right now. Imagine how much they'd get if they weren't paying union dollars...But I digress.

Mike S.: I'd rather run for congress and out the thieves, liars and cheats and ally myself with the few good ones. . They are supposed to be the most important branch of gov't, it's just that we haven't noticed lately since they've been abdicating a lot of their powers lately to the Pres.

LB: Do you really mean you want more gov't employees? More expansion of government? Yikes. Accounting for non-income taxpayers in the USA, aren't we approaching 50% of people on the public dollar already? I'm getting pretty overtaxed supporting a number of government (Fed, state & local) pension plans when I don't even enjoy one myself.

the Congress wasted too much money on pork barrel spending and forgot about the Country and its infastructure needs...they saw to it that the rails were in good shape from Washington to New York for their own use, but forgot the rest...and the media completely ignored the issue because there was no "news in it." we are all to blame on this one.

Who wants to explain where the money goes? I'll pick on Texas since i live there, but they are by no means alone. Pathetic public school system, poor roads, social services cut or funding reduced to levels so low that it's a miracle anything gets done.

So, where is the money going? I'm paying sales tax, and property tax, and school tax and a couple more. It's not going to welfare, or affordable health care, or schools, or road improvements or anything else that you would THINK would matter.

The sad thing is, if I as a taxpayer woke up and said ENOUGH, I'm not paying another cent until you stop wasting it I would be the one in trouble...

Yes, but it is not just roads and bridges.
When we entered the era of "no taxes – not new, not old..., none" – budgets were cut, everywhere. What was first to go was maintenance, long term first, short term next. Just look at schools.
In Seattle what the school board learned, at our expense, was that if you defer the repairs long enough, when it get bad enough, the same people who demanded that their taxes be cut, WOULD pass bond levies for those repairs. Unique to schools, to Seattle..., of course not.
There are those who will blame "The Government"...; but we have met the enemy, and it is U.S.
"The Government is bloated", they will say, again, & again.
So..., explain the GM, Ford, & the other guys, corporate jets being used to go beg for some money. CEO's being paid millions, when their companies are loosing even more millions, even going BK.
The simple blunt truth is that you – you personally, and "Them" – do not want to fully pay for what you use.
Life's a cake walk, said Marie Antoinette.

I've lived here in Pennsylvania for over 13 years now and not a single year have I seen the Turnpike WITHOUT construction, making the badly designed PA hiways more jammed.
The problem is NOT there is not enough money, but lack of oversight of these projects. PA has been at the mercy of crappy subcontractors. When has it ever taken over a year to patch up a 5 mile stretch of road and most of the time, you see 5 persons doing one task? On I-95, you know that you have crossed over to PA from the DE state line since you have all these potholes!!! Providing PA with more money will only make these contractors richer! WE NEED CHANGE!

If I were president I would use all this "bailout" money to help not wall street or main street, but streets. I would create a department of infrastructure that would rebuild infrastructures. I would not merely fix potholes. I would have a vision of America in 50 to 100 years and I would start towards that goal. I would increase freeways yes, and fix roads yes, but I would also get across the board cooperation with states, counties, and cities, to plan for their future needs, including rezoning of cities around public transportation models. I would make it so much easier to walk to public transportation, use public transportation, and also to drive wherever you needed. I would create a whole new way of thinking about transportation. Every traffic light would also be a solar generator. Every effort would be made to be sustainable with a low pollution solution. I love to drive but would much rather take public transportation, and walk. I would love to do all three.

And with all the money we've already wasted fattening wall street coffers under the term "bailout" we could put all these unemployed people to work building freeways and light rail and subways and rebuidling, reinventing our cities.

that is pie in the sky, but if you are going to spend a trillion dollars, you might as well have flower lined streets and beautiful infrastructure, and it might as well be easy to get around town.

just my idea. i hope the future government goes full heart for this.

Where can I find the link on details of the project proosals presented to presedent elect Obama by govermnors or city mayors?

Stiffo

Seems to me that our country has always had plenty of money to fight other countries wars or chase terrorist all over the globe. We've always found the time and money to go out and tell everyone else what to do and how to do it. Why should anyone listen to us, the nation is a mess at the moment.
Lets start looking after this country for a change and turn it back into a place we can be proud of and others can respect. We need jobs, schools, hospitals, public transportation, roads, etc.

Well, once again, states collect money from various taxes structured to help them keep their respective infrastructure up to stuff, and lo and behold, they spent the money for something else, and now they are forming a line to cry to the federal government that they need money or the bridges will collapse before out eyes.

Think about it, why save, why do what is right. Complain and sensationalize the problem, plead that it is not your fault but the economy, and then promise to create jobs, and before you know it, the check is in the mail.

When will our politicians and fellow citizens, do the right thing?

The unfortunate reality is that we as a species are extremely short sighted and operate on a short term basis.
"get it right now never mind the consequences of the future" most think.
From our short sighted minds that constantly do things we cannot maintain in the long run ; things like petroleum dependence to complacency in the facilitation of slavery for hundreds of years to the savings and loan scandals and maintaining of the status quo.

Reality catches up with us however and all bills must be paid.
As far as federal funding goes to infrastructure repair I personally would rather sanction the federal govt using taxpayer money for road repairs here than military funding for another country ( Iraq).
funny how people have no qualms paying billions for that country than using it for US!

Have the fed use PRIVATE contractors in the marketplace to force price efficiency in the repairs and thus creating a robust construction sector again.
Lastly we as a country have to re prioritize our values, economically and socially.

I think there is a level of honest that exists in prioritizing. Demands for attention for individuals and governments will always exceed available time for attention. I think about this in my own life when evaluating my to-do and "should" lists.

The lesson I've learned personally is that every decision now has a cost later, and so recognizing my past failures and negligences encourage me to more honestly evaluate decisions in the present, whether or not I expect future costs are acceptable.

And procrastination itself is a decision that adds future costs. This includes decisions like accumulating debt, but also accumulating infrastructure whether a new road or new larger house adds future demands for maintenance.

It would be nice if all decisions could be rationally prioritized in terms of cost-benefit, but it's all subjective, and money'd interests might win over public good which can't be measured. It's fun and scary to realize that somethings (like a will) can be delayed indefinitely without any consequence you have to deal with. And some consequences like pollution will "clean up themselves" if you're willing to wait long enough.

Hearing a Federal plan to invest in infrastructure to help create jobs and improve communities is great news, especially if good decisions are made that really improve things, rather than just creating low-value busy work that doesn't really matter. Hard decisions I'm sure!

Preservation and maintenance are perhaps the hardest things to prioritize. When does delaying maintenance save money in the long run? And when is it better to "de-invest" in something that has outlived its value?

And I worry about the "bigger picture" too, when fossil fuels are not so cheap and plentiful. How many roads can you maintain without cheap petroleum? I'm with Matt Simmons that our rail system needs major upgrades since it is cheapest fuel-wise, and maintenance wise for long distance transportation.

Deficit spending is scary enough, and thinking about investing in obsolete infrastructure (roads that can't be maintained in 10 years). I can only hope the right decisions are made for an unknown future.

When the oil lobby get together with the car companies behind closed doors and decide our policy of come on America,"burn baby burn",Gasoline that is.Then the wall street lobby whispers into the public's ear that "supplies are tightening while George W cntinues to fill the strategic reserve when the price was at or near it's peak high.Why stop to sharpen the saw on I-35,we've got more important things to mislead the American people about.....Reality is perception.K and Wall are the only streets that were well taken care of these last eight years...oh ya,our drug companies owning the FDA and some defense contractors under the pretense of National Security,didn't do so bad either. Our ship is upside down and has been for years.Barack not only has to shake the rats out as he uprights it.He has to pump it out and get some PUBLIC momentum behind it called "confidence".He is doing a bang up job so far.I want Joe Biden to look into the specifics of where that last 150,000,000 dolars in campaign contributions came from and see if there were any of said "RATS" trying to jump from one ship to this ship of a new direction? If so Joe, Your in charge of drowning them before they nest in the new administration!!! Thanks Joe.

We, and our politicians, need to stop being so short-sighted. Instead of rebuilding highways, bridges, and expanding/bandaid-ing national infrastructure, we need to look at new, viable, "21st century-smart" ways to move people to and from work.

A great example of this problem can be seen in Interstate-4 (I4) in Orlando, Florida. The city spends countless tens of hundreds of millions on upkeep of the road every year and the millions of motorists which use the corridor spew greenhouse gases and other emissions which deteriorate our planet. The use of gas to power these millions of cars is inextricably linked to our dependence on oil abroad. But I won't even get started on that problem...

What America needs is a new look at MASS TRANSIT. We need to get people out of their cars and connecting with one another and their city again. We need to suck in our pride and kick the habit that public-transportation is reserved only for those below the poverty line. We need smarter urban planning. We need parking garages and facilities where motorists can commute to, park their car, and then connect themselves directly to the mass transit system. (Getting people on foot again could do wonders for health as well...)

Yes, in the short term, we have to fix that which is broken and surely causes risk to motorists. But I'd truly be impressed if our politicians would start looking a bit ahead. Adding 4 more lanes to I-4 isn't the solution. Repaving I-4 and fixing some pot holes and building more on-ramps isn't a solution. I-4 in Orlando, FL is just an example; however, I'm certain that those among us who live in a large Metropolitan area can agree that heavily reliance on roads to move people is not smart and echoes poor planning. A lot of it is behavioral– not knowing how to break out of the routine of traditional commuting. Thank god we're the most adaptable, intelligent species on the planet.

God bless.

at least pres. elect obama is willing to try to do something creative with the money used to stimulate the economy. this problem just didn't start this year.

its been going on since forever and in the past few years the stimulus checks were just given to people who end up buying foreign products compounding the problem.

its amazing all the complaints about the administration that isn't even responsible for anything until 1/20/09 but has done more beforehand than any other administration. in the past most president elects only had a few quick photo ops then weren't seen until after new years.

pres. elect obama has been going full speed after a long 2 year election cycle without a break, actually he needs a vacation and i hope he takes one soon.

the repubs who are complaining now should ask their current pres. they voted for to get something done before leaving because he is still getting paid to do the job of president until the new one is sworn in.

To those who say we should privatize the roads: most roads and bridges are designed by private consulting engineering firms like the one I work for and all of the construction is done by private companies. The state DOTs do some design (some more than others), but exist mostly to ensure that the consultants follow design codes properly and that contractors follow the plans and the labor laws. A lot of the DOTs are even phasing out what little maintenance they do.

If a private company design & builds a road they are going to expect to get paid for it. So they toll it. Now maybe you never drive that road, but someone will and then that person needs to charge more for his widgets to cover his expenses to bring them in. So whether your gas tax goes up by 10 cents a gallon or you pay more for everything at the store, the money from the road will be collected somehow.

To those who say we are paying too much in taxes or make a blanket platitude about cutting waste: there are very many persons who work hard every day at the DOTs. Many DOTs have had hiring freezes for years or given pay raises that lag behind the private companies. Good benefits that made up for lower pay are being phased out. There is nothing left to cut.

If people want roads, bridges, schools, sewers, airports and rail that meet still growng demand then we have to spend some money. The scale of the problem is a monumental, but there are lots of men & women who are up to the tasks.

It's interesting that you ask, are we procrastinators? I'm not sure,
however, I feel the majority of our nations problems is simply a
failure for elected officials to realize they are in the "problem
solving business". Like you stated many of the issues aren't new.
It's just that the old issues become so bad, to the point, now
we have to do something. When in reality officials failed to grasp
the fact that they were in the" problem solving business" at the
start of issue. Procrastinators or neglectors of responsiblities?
I wonder.

Iam very much sorry to having read your blog in which you had the full courage to share with us your ordeals on bad roads in your area and which you have to endure while driving to work.I definately feel ill at ease when US politicians turn blind eyes to fix those potholes for a long time which are affecting their citizens on a daily basis.And instead they are busy throwing a huge sums of money in fighting in an illegal war in Iraq under the pretext of war on terror and Weapons of Mass Deaths which turned out to be a false intelligency given by the CIA.It is now the responsiblity of the states governors to look in to these problems before they could get out of hand.Serving the best interests of their country and their people should be paramount.And then try to rethink the way how to give aid money to dictators in Africa.As you have now elected a new president ,may be the potholes will be fixed and among other things like creating new jobs for the jobless new homes for the homeless.How shameful to wait that long until there is anannouncement or publicity by the media which many Europens will read or watch those dreadful pictures on their TV screens as they are looking forward to challenge and compete with one of the most powerful countries in the world.President Obama's promise for a change might be fruitful if not shortlived,but one has to wait and see if he can deliever at least some of his promises,especially for the American people who had suffered so much in the hands of President Bush's foreign policy and the number one figurehead that has caused the economic down turn as many people are now losing their homes and jobs.

Tis the season to examine a few well cherished myths about the built environment.

Myth #1: the roads and bridges (and other "public works lumped into the term infrastructure) are, somehow, not the responsibility of "us taxpayers." Some invisible "they" built them and should maintain them for "us" and at, of course, at little or no expense to "us."

The government; i.e., us the taxpayers. all – absolutely no exceptions – receive all – absolutely all – our goods and services via the roads, bridges and other infrastructure that we have, collectively, built or have had built so the goods and services are available. Wishing otherwise – or "believing in" private enterprise for that matter – can change that.

Myth #2: The government (but in this instance not "us" of course) is directly responsible for building and maintanining the roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

Only a very small component is done directly by government officials and employees,and that is chiefly at the planning and programming level. The actual "work" of designing and building and maintaining roads, etc. is performed by private enterprise under contracts that are awarded to the lowest responsible bidders through an open, public competitive bidding process.

This may not be a "perfect" system (and for a number of reasons it has often failed) but the reality is that our roads and infrastructure are built by and under the principles of private enterprise and the free market.

Myth #3: Taxes on gasoline (and other forms of energy are "too high" already so "we" can't "afford" to pay the associated costs of using the energy we are using.

Believing we are living in a "fools' paradise" where first costs (of infrastructure and energy) are the only costs – and everything else will somehow be resoved by some "magic thinking" schemes – is what has got us into this morass. Getting out means imposing on ourselves (the "we" noted above) substantially higher taxes (than those we are currently paying) on energy to reduce its consumption and to pay for real solutions to repairing a seriously degraded environment. Both are but the sides of the same coin.

I drive commercial over the road and see 3 or 4 different states a day especially eastern US. Much of it is original from the 50's so you can imagine.Where they work big projects they are years in the making and the traffic situation is enormous so again you can imagine what things will be like when the new deal goes through. The fact is freight is down right now but it wont be forever. The infrastructure for large trucks is 20 to 40 yrs outdated ,at night there is virtually nowhere to get to a safe haven and take the required rest. The few truck stops and rest areas have big rigs parked going in and out down the ramps to the interstates.Almost all truck stops are completely outdated and some states have very few facilities if any at all.sometimes you can't blame a trucker for appearance and when the dispatchers are pushing you hard things may become dangerous.People out there you cannot survive without truckers and most of them mean well, better times are coming but it may be a long while.

Bad bridges ?
I live in Minneapolis.
I win.

COOL THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED RIGHT NOW IS TO SPEND FIVE MILLION DOLLARS ON SOME STUPID POLAR BEAR EXHIBIT. THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED WITH ALL OF THE PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD IS A FIVE MILLION DOLLAR PLACE TO GO AND SEE THE POLAR BEARS THAT WE HAVE PUSHED TO THE POINT OF EXTINCTION.

Trouble seems to be a breed of politicians and bureacrats that see themselves as big mover's and shaker's. Short term projects and goals can be used to pad one's pride and resume with "Look what I have done". Whether its brokering tax breaks to lure new industry to town, building a new ball park, turning the crumbling downtown into some glamourous night spot, the guys in the "Movers and Shakers" club use all these short term projects as stepping stones for career advancement. Fixing the roads and sewers is not very rewarding to the "Mover and Shaker's" agenda. That stuff is already there so let it be someone elses problem cause the Mover and Shakers want to be wining and dining, networking, booking travel to cris-cross the country to show how busy and important they are (plus fill up their day planners). Local government is just a living host that they have invaded and seems this disease has really spread. These guys are no different than the parasites that have invaded the morgage and loan, banks, Wall Street, you name it. Its all smiles and a slick line to feed the masses.

While reading a post on this site I came across a particular one that suggested that the government should employ and train out of work citizens to build new bridges and maintain the old. There are out of work citizens that are all ready trained in bridge construction. Many of which have many years of brige expeirence...I am just one of these "citizens". I worked on the I-280 Skyway Bridge here in Toledo Ohio for nearly 2 years. A 220 million dollar bridge project that not only replaced an obsolete bridge but also employed hundreds of men and women in NW Ohio for many years. I have also worked on many other smaller bridges in this area including the redecking of two bridges crossing the very busy I-75 highway. These "citizens" are Union Ironworkers. And today there are currently over 300 of us that are laid off...due to "lack of work" just in Toledo alone. Federal and state money goes to the auto industry while our infastructure crumbles around us. The government does not need to train and employ regular citizens. Spending more money to do something that we are all ready trained to do. Every two weeks I file for unemployment and I list "lack of work" as the reason and it makes me sick, because I see these structures everyday around this city. But the question is, where is the money going to come from?