In the wake of the Minneapolis tragedy, transportation safety was widely discussed. The bridge collapse was so destructive and tragic that one has to wonder if bridges from New York to Washington state are in as much risk as the one that collapsed.
Unfortunately, politics and partisanship became the knee-jerk reaction of many elected officials. Before the bodies had even been completely counted, Senate leaders were already connecting decades of local infrastructure mistakes and oversights throwing blame around on each other.
Washington state's own teacher-turned-senator, Patty Murray, blamed the tragedy on a political tug-of-war over an infrastructure bill: "The lack of investment in infrastructure is frightening. This is what Bush is threatening to veto - investment in infrastructure for roads we go to work on every day."
Murray's comments bring up images in one's mind of Dubya crouched in the Oval Office, rubbing his hands together as he devises elaborate plans to kill rush-hour drivers.
CLOSER TO HOME
Efforts did get rolling, however, to make sure what happened in Minneapolis didn't repeat in a major city like Seattle. Gov. Christine Gregoire has taken an approach of less risk-taking.
On Aug. 2, Gregoire asked for a report on all 3,000 of Washington's bridges. After seeing what happened in Minneapolis, Gregoire become particularly concerned about the state Route 520 bridge across Lake Washington and the Alaskan Way Viaduct along Elliott Bay.
With all the hubbub we've heard about the viaduct for the last few years, concerns over its safety could speed up its repair or replacement.
The Lake Washington Ship Canal Bridge, which was built more than three decades ago, has received inspection recommendations from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Inspections of that particular bridge took place in mid-August of this year, and results are not yet available.
Those results could raise safety concerns, but for now local officials seem satisfied. King County bridge inspection head Tim Lane has said that the bridge is "pretty well built."
The state Route 99/Aurora Bridge over the ship canal has raised concerns, as well. Harvey Coffman, the state head of bridge inspections, has said that the bridge is "functionally obsolete."
A MINNEAPOLIS HERE?
Most people would agree that the inspection process needs to be thorough for anything significant to come about.
Minneapolis had passed bridge inspections for years, according to the International Herald Tribune, only to collapse into ruin recently.
Most people in the press aren't engineers by any stretch of the imagination, but both pundits and reporters are familiar with government putting bandages on a sore in order to look like they are solving the problem.
In an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Redmond driver David Wotten expressed his wide-ranging concern: "Frankly, every bridge over 40 years old is suspect in my mind."
Wotten may be right, and unless inspections are followed up by action, what happened in Minneapolis could happen again.
Madison Valley resident Michael Powell can be reached at mptimes@nwlink.com. He also has a web log at deschamps.townhall.com.[[In-content Ad]]
