I don't know what kind of relationship Kristi Foster has or had with her brother Kirk. But on the night of August 1, she wanted to see him more than she ever had in her life.

Foster, quoted in the Minneapolis Star, paced at the information center set up at a Holiday Inn for people unable to contact relatives who might, maybe, could have been on the bridge over I-35 that collapsed during rush hour.

Maybe 50 vehicles--maybe 60--plummeted to the Mississippi River below. No one knows on Thursday morning how many lives were lost; how many were turned completely upside down; how many will never be able to drive over a bridge again.

Twelve hours after the collapse there is still no mention of terrorism. Instead, there is the 800 pound gorilla whispering, "poor construction." I hear a 15-year-old warning that our nation's infrastructure is crumbling. I'm reminded every day of the $20 million paving fiasco on I-40 near Raleigh.

The American Society of Civil Engineers says recent transportation funding bills have enabled ?some improvement in the condition of the transportation infrastructure. That improvement means that as of 2005, just 156,335 of our 595,363 bridges, or 26.3%, were structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, as compared to 34.6% in 1992. This group of professionals says that, despite this improvement, bad bridges "constitute significant potential hazards which may jeopardize the safe, reliable and efficient operation of these."

To eliminate all bridge deficiencies, they say, will require $9.4 billion annually for 20 years. That's a lot of money--nearly what we spend in Iraq for a whole month.

But how important is it? How many important bridges in your life await repair because you spend your precious resources on other things that seem so important at the time? The steel and cement structures you've built will surely withstand neglect another year--or decade--while you chase more ephemeral goals.

Or maybe you'?re standing with the hundreds of Kristi Fosters wondering how it could all fall down.

Posted by jameson ( Aug 02 2007, 11:24:59 AM EDT ) Permalink Comments [1]