Did anyone ever go over a bridge and think twice about it.


I didn’t.



I just bought into the myths. Like countless other people.



This was America.



Our country was strong. Our apple pie the best.

And the flag really stood for something.



So much for sloganism...



What we did believe was that bridges were strong; bridges would not let us down; and they were in place for ever.



Some of us were involved enough to believe that all bridges are inspected regularly by licensed engineers and that all bridges are fundamentally in good shape and no way structurally deficient.



Well, folks, the bridge's cover has been blown!



I was brought up short in listening to a few professionals in the bridge building business exchanging confidences.



It was enough to blow my socks off.



First, there are only two states who require bridge inspectors to be engineers and professional licensed for that job.



One is New York.



And if that wasn’t scary enough, one engineer mentioned that one out of four bridges in the US today are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.



It gets worse when you talk urban areas, where faulty bridges account for one out of three bridges.



This doesn’t mean that the bridges are going to fall down tomorrow; it does mean that bridge inspectors need to be vigilant and attend to what they see as “danger” signs.



That would take into consideration the age of the bridge, the design, the frequency of inspection, the safety record on the bridge.



In New York alone, 58% of all bridges were built before 1970.





And the condition of bridges is probably worse elsewhere where the bridge inspectors are not engineers….



The problem is mainly a budgetary one where budgets for inert items that simply do their job year after year do not automatically move up despite the best of intentions.



Therefore, it would seem to behoove residents of areas where the bridges may be old or questionable to consider making information about the bridge’s inspection schedules and safety records part of public information and subject to hearings in those specific areas where the bridges are located.



The key again tends often to be the public sector displaying a higher level of vigilance.



So, what else is new?



Les Aaron

The Committee for Positive Change

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