In Sep 2006 a highway overpass collapsed in Montreal. Five died, six were injured. It had been designed in 1969. In 1992 and in 2004 it's deterioration was noted, but nothing was done. In the province of Quebec alone, some 12,000 bridges need major repair.
In Aug 2007 a highway bridge collapsed in Minneapolis. Dozens of cars and their occupants were plunged into the river below. 13 died, many were injured. The bridge was under repairs due to deterioration noted earlier. Clearly something went wrong. Design, the re-routing of traffic causing an overload on the parts that were in operation and other ideas have been cited. And this isn't the only bridge like that in the US.
The entire continent developed at a fever pitch in the last half of the 20th century. We built our infrastructure in a hurry as our nations grew and prospered. But we have failed to maintain them. The costs to restore what's already built are staggering. The time required to do so is long. We are in a mess! How many more bridges will collapse, lives lost, etc. will happen before we act decisively. What's missing? Political will.
Infrastructure is big, its expensive and it takes a long time to build or repair. The money comes from taxes - we don't like paying those. We award construction work to the lowest bidder. Some of those bidders get into trouble financially and cut corners to save money. People die later. Much later - but the cause doesn't change. Maintenance practises for infrastructure are sadly lacking - again its very expensive to do it well. Just drive around in virtually any city in North America and note how rough the ride is. The further north you go, the more winter and freeze / thaw cycles have their impact and the worse the roads are. The more rusted the re-bar is inside the concrete.
Who's fault is all this? Ours. We are all contributing to it. We are all choosing, in our own ways, to encourage poor maintenance of our existing infrastructure, award of contracts on the sole basis of price, to encourage corner cutting and to pay for it with human life. It may not be our life, it's usually someone else, but it could be ours too - someday.
Political will is sadly lacking for anything that takes time. Long term activities don't win you votes. Our politicians are so self-serving and we all know it. We rank them right down there with lawyers when it comes to people we trust. And sadly those politicians reflect those who elect them and our preferences. We get what we have asked for. And we continue to do so. Until we accept political leaders with vision and actually vote for them, we will not change this situation. All of our technology and knowledge won't work without the political will to use it effectively. So far that will is lacking and we are suffering with the results. North America is beginning to lag behind parts of what we once considered the "developing world". Our infrastructure is but one aspect of that lag that is beginning to show. How far will we slip before we see what we are doing to ourselves and choose to change it? Are we like the alcoholic that must hit rock bottom before seeing the need to change? Or are we smart enough to pay attention to those "canaries in the coal mine" and get our act together before too much goes wrong?
What will that political will look like? Long term thinking. Willingness to act for future generations, not just for today's voters. Willingness to cooperate among political entities and levels. Our infrastructure falls under a variety of jurisdictional levels. Doing the unpopular. Spending and finding money through taxes and other more creative and less regressive means. Making users pay instead of appearing to be fair. Doing what's right, not what looks right. Being smart and honest, not politically correct and naive. These are just a few ideas. What about vision? Political leaders tend to have very short sighted vision. It lasts as long as their next term in office - if that. Near the end of their careers they get smarter and decide to leave a legacy - they want their names remembered and then they start to do a few smart things. But no sooner in most cases. It's sad but we really do lack the political leaders to help keep our world leading prosperity where it is. We'll pay sooner or later - sooner for some of us, later for others, but we'll all pay.
