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Editorials

Minnesota bridge collapse shocked nation

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The collapse of a major bridge in Minnesota on Wednesday was a shock across
the nation. The bridge which serves as a major traffic artery of Minneapolis is
part of the interstate system. The loss of life was tragic.

And yet it could have been worse. The bridge collapsed during the height of
the rush hour.

The reverberations of the bridge collapse were felt across the nation as
every city and state took a closer look at its own system of bridges with a new
sense of urgency. Americans simply don't expect a bridge to collapse short of an
act of God or the act of a terrorist.

But what this renewed scrutiny of the nation's bridges has brought is a
realization of the deteriorated state of the steel and concrete spans that are
so vital a part of the nation's traffic system. Whether marginally deficient or
in need of serious repair, thousands of miles of spans are known to be in less
than ideal state because of the daily pounding they receive as the nation's
highways and interstates each year carry ever larger traffic loads. But the
billions of dollars in highway funding to repair all those bridges just haven't
kept up.

The investigation into the cause of the collapse of the I-35 bridge in
Minneapolis has only just begun. The death toll stands at five, but that figure
is expected to climb. The wonder is that more lives weren't lost. The collapse
came during the midst of the evening rush-hour traffic with vehicles backed up
on the span, the busiest in the state.

On Saturday, President Bush visited the site of the bridge collapse and
pledged to cut any red tape that might slow down federal funds needed to rebuild
the bridge.

Congress is already working to direct $250 million to rebuilding the bridge.
The magnitude of the collapse merits such quick action. Finding a way to
identify the money to rebuild the rest of the nation's deficient bridges will be
more complex.

In Texas, for instance, the gasoline tax is no longer sufficient even to keep
up with the need for new road and bridges, much less repairing the many
deficient bridges in the state. In the Corpus Christi area alone, the state has
identified a dozen spans that are structurally deficient, including the
northbound lanes of the Nueces Bay Causeway. Should motorists be scared to drive
across any of these spans? Not by any means. The bridges continue to do the job
they were designed for, carrying thousands of vehicles every day.

But the list of deficient bridges does mean funds need to be identified so
that these spans can be brought up to the highest standards. But the state
gasoline tax, the chief source of state funds for highway construction and
repair, has been unchanged since the 1990s. And the state fuel tax at 20 cents
is one of the lowest in the nation. Likewise, the federal gasoline tax has been
frozen for years.

Political courage lacking

Politicians in Austin and Washington are reluctant to raise fuel taxes
because consumers struggling with higher gas prices may not have sympathy for
politicians who raise fuel taxes. Thus, the romance in Austin with toll roads.

But even steep tolls may not produce enough money to keep up with the state's
infrastructure needs. That's why some highway experts are experimenting with
per-mile fees.

That would charge motorists based upon a mileage model rather than a fuel
consumption model. The point is that deferring maintenance on bridges saves no
money, but does put motorists at increasingly great risks, a point that was
dramatically made in Minneapolis.

Whether higher fuel taxes, some tolls and even fee-per-mile, the money must
be found to repair the miles of bridges that have been identified as deficient.
Those bridges are deteriorating bit by bit ever day as they are pounded and
twisted by the millions of tons of vehicles using them every day, every week and
every month.

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