This has nothing to do with working at home per se because, sooner or later, we’ll all drive over a bridge - possibly one about to collapse - but it does have something to do with entrepreneurship and leadership. We seem to have little. We’re relying on WWII infrastructure in the “Star Wars” era. Even China is ahead of us in the use of non-corrosive bridge building material.
From Arnaud de Borchgrave
The collapse of an eight-lane interstate bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis that was under repair reminds us that 30 percent of America’s almost 500,000 bridges are categorized as “deficient” and in “urgent need of repair.”
The bill for urgent work on the nation’s bridges is estimated at $80 billion.
In contrast, the Iraq and Afghan wars have cost more than half a trillion dollars so far. The two conflicts are running at the rate of $12 billion a month, or $400 million a day.
Despite major renovations of U.S. infrastructure, an estimated $1.6 trillion is still needed over five years to bring it to “safe standards.” Bridges, roads, railroads and waterways all have been short-changed by the war on terror. Even before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks a “Report Card for America’s Infrastructure” graded 12 infrastructure categories at a D-plus.
“The nation is failing to even maintain the substandard conditions we currently have,” said the report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers, “a dangerous trend that is affecting highway safety, as well as the health of the economy.”
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