Cracking up

Everything has a life span.

How long we live depends on how we take care of ourselves, barring any catastrophic incident or illness.
The average life span of an American woman is 80; for a man, 75.

A bridge usually lasts 50 years. Not bad, until you consider the average age of bridges in our country is 43.

The American Society of Civil Engineers last year gave the nation”™s infrastructure a near-failing grade point average of D. It determined that $2.2 trillion would be needed over five years to fund much-needed repairs.

And repairs are solely needed.

We need only go back to 2007 and witness the collapse of the bridge carrying Interstate 35 over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis that resulted in the deaths of 13 people and injuries to 145.

A bit further back in time, 1983, a section of an Interstate 95 bridge in Greenwich collapsed sending three people to their deaths in the Mianus River.

The mother of all superstructures, the Tappan Zee Bridge, should have retired five years ago when it marked its 50th anniversary. It still stands, bolstered by an annual maintenance budget of $6 million.

For the thousands of drivers who cross it each day, the big question remains: How much longer will it last?

Studies point to a multibillion-dollar fix that New York state does not have.

The Tappan Zee is not alone in its plight. One in four of America”™s bridges are “either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete,” according to the report by the civil engineers society. In New York it was worse, with the group finding 42 percent of all bridges as structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. It also found that 46 percent of state roads are in poor or mediocre condition.

The group went on to paint a sobering picture.

To substantially improve today”™s bridges, $17 billion in annual funding is needed. Unfortunately, only $10.5 billion is spent on construction and maintenance.

When does replacement supersede maintenance, as in throwing good money after bad? Witness the tremendous amount of money spent over the last 20 years on the Gowanus Expressway in New York City: $760 million. That”™s a lot of taxpayer cash for just a 3.2-mile section of highway. And the unbelievable part about the Gowanus is that it was built in 1941 on top of the pillars of an old elevated subway line.

The New York State Department of Transportation in 2008 did a study to determine how much it would take to bring the roads and bridges to a state of “good” repair. The DOT came up with a figure of $175 billion, and it didn”™t even include the needs of the MTA, the Thruway Authority or the state Bridge Authority.

A recent infrastructure conference hosted by Iona College concluded that there was little hope for a quick fix.

In addition to asphalt, mortar, bricks and bolts, what”™s also missing from our infrastructure is political will.

One of the major stumbling blocks to setting aside money for repairs is the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality of many of our elected officials.

It”™s easy to throw money at issues such as crime, health care and education. But roads, bridges and sewers are not very appealing.

If our politicians exerted as much time on infrastructure issues as they do in determining who should get a helping of pork-barrel money, we wouldn”™t be in the fix we are in.

It seems it always takes a catastrophe to fix what should have been fixed to begin with.

New York Gov. David Paterson”™s recent action to pull the plug on state construction projects is misguided and just plain wrong-headed.

What also is wrong is spending $7 million in taxpayer money on a consultant to determine ways of improving traffic congestion, air quality, commuting and mobility on roadways. Are not the state staffers good enough at making these determinations themselves?

Perhaps it”™s a human version of planned obsolescence. Or maybe mediocrity has taken root.