All this fuss because the ex-bridge (now raft) had been declared "structurally deficient" in a 1990 Federal Report.
Many blame throwers seem to think that responsible authorities should have closed the bridge at once and commenced repairs. Now congress is rushing forward to dump a quarter billion of my (well, our) tax dollars on the state to fix the bridge - whose demise casued no more loss of life than a good old fashioned multicar freeway collison.
What about the other 77,000 "structurally deficient" bridges on the same list?
der Brucer
Local media is already blaming Pawlenty and his reluctance to raise the gas tax which lags significantly behind ND (25 cents/gallon) Wisconsin at 31.
There are rural highways in parts of MN that are horrid to drive on and that is no joke. There is one state highway in northcentral MN that is is hazardous to a car's suspension. I do have to say some of the ND highways are not great. I recall several years ago that they literally had to drag MN to the table to assist in helping to repair two bridges that span the Red River between Fargo and Moorhead. One of the bridges needed to be replaced and denizens were actually clamoring for somehing to be done for it was becoming dangerous to drive on it. ND had it in the plan to replace it and actually due to MN reluctance to cough up its share they had to wait 5 additional years. It was a very dangerous bridge and I did my best to avoid it when possible before it was replaced. It was very narrow bridge and had issues with loosing chuncks of cement.
MN tends to take money earmarked for the rural areas and send it to the Twin Cities. needless to say the state of Minnesota has a mess when it comes to funding.
Sadly, it is an issue I think all states and the federal government needs to examine. The roads and other infrastructure are in a sorry state.
