History and the Future: the Implications of the I-35 Bridge Collapse

Four years ago, we had a Minnesota tragedy when the bridge collapsed.

In the interim, we've built a new bridge to replace it, and a memorial to the event which will be dedicated today.

There was some attempt after this tragedy to address the very worst, the most egregious potential bridges in poor repair, that were in danger of repeating the tragedy. To that extent, we had a good thing come out of this terrible event.  But we didn't do nearly enough.

Flags will fly at half-mast in Minnesota, by order of the Governor.

A few bridges, like the one in St. Cloud, the DeSoto bridge, were replaced before it could fall down like the I-35 bridge.  But we have many, many more bridges that are not in good repair, that are rated either functionally obsolete or dangerously structurally deficient.  We've had a few other bridges closed, or greatly restricted because of the latter rating, but not all of them.  A frightening number of bridges that need major repair, overhaul, or complete replacement continue to be in service.  An example of a few of those, a list which is by no means comprehensive, is listed HERE.

So while I commend Governor Dayton for remembering those who died, those who were injured, and those who responded heroically to save others in a disaster, flying a flag differently clearly, is not enough. It does not so far as I can see raise awareness of the terrible deterioration of our infrastructure, it does nothing to make a continuing unsafe situation more safe.


In this context, as I look at the federal spending cuts that simply extend the neglect of our infrastructure, not just bridges, but all of our infrastructure, and as I contemplate the recent budge passed in Minnesota which largely does the same, it strikes me that we are not only making the same mistakes.  We are compounding them.  The Republican cuts-only insanity passing as ideology takes no responsibility for solving these problems, problems which threaten all of us with potentially deadly catastrophic results.  Problems which are not only dangerous, but counterproductive to any economic growth.  That applies to the short term benefits to our economy of construction, that applies to the short and long term benefits to business in Minnesota that are inherent in having roads that are adequate and in good repair, as well as our rail system.  That applies to our air travel.  That applies to our security as a state and a nation.

Waaaaay back in 1956, Republican President Dwight (Ike) D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1957, creating the interstate highway system that we take for granted, those highways like the one that traversed the I-35 bridge that collapsed,  that are designated with an ' I ' in front of the number.  The U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration web page on the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System history calls it:

The Interstate System has been called the Greatest Public Works Project in History. From the day President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, the Interstate System has been a part of our culture—as construction projects, as transportation in our daily lives, and as an integral part of the American way of life. Every citizen has been touched by it, if not directly as motorists, then indirectly because every item we buy has been on the Interstate System at some point. President Eisenhower considered it one of the most important achievements of his two terms in office, and historians agree.

In this section, you will find articles explaining the origins of the Interstate System and how it came together, as well as other aspects of its development. Check the bibliography for additional readings on all aspects of the story. Links will connect you to other sources of information.

Eisenhower himself said of this:

“More than any single action by the government since the end of the war, this one would change the face of America with straightaways, cloverleaf turns, bridges, and elongated parkways. Its impact on the American economy—the jobs it would produce in manufacturing and construction, the rural areas it would open up—was beyond calculation.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower Mandate for Change 1953-1956 (1963)

I would underline the importance not only to our economy, but also to our safety and security, of maintaining our infrastructure (from wikipedia):

Eisenhower gained an appreciation of the German Autobahn network as a necessary component of a national defense system while he was serving as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II.[6] He recognized that the proposed system would also provide key ground transport routes for military supplies and troop deployments in case of an emergency or foreign invasion.

The deployment of military is not the only reason this applies to our security; it pertains as well to other kinds of natural disaster response.

As a well-educated student of history, as I look at the spending cuts of our current governments, led by nominal Republicans and other conservatives, they are an embarrassment, a disgrace, to the earlier contributions of very real leaders and statesmen who led this country to our past greatness.  Those who believe we shouldn't have 'big government' are the very ones who are taking away the funding of maintaining and even expanding our very necessary infrastructure, an important and necessary part of the proper function of government.  They would seek to privatize everything, which has consistently lead to less efficient, less well-coordinated, and more costly services in the name of special interest profiteering.

As we contemplate the tragedy of the I-35 bridge collapse, we should remember that people died because of an avoidable tragedy.  We should contemplate that we are making exactly the same mistakes over and over, to an even greater degree than before, that caused that avoidable tragedy, and that we are setting ourselves up for more of the same, we are sabotaging our own futures and our own success with these policies, with this ideology.

Don't believe me?  What else can you take away from stories like this, where a chunk of concrete fell off of another I-35 bridge, smashing a car?  Or this? 
Or this?

Joel Hanson, the city administrator for Little Canada, a neighboring suburb, added that “concrete chunks have been known to fall off the bridge and land on TH 36 below.”

Current budget cuts are penny wise and pound foolish - and poundingly dangerous.  We will look back at this period of the Republican and Tea Party policies as among the most short-sighted, and down right dangerous, of our state and national history.  If we're still around to do so; some of us won't be, who could and should be, if the I-35 bridge collapse is any predictor.

We had the same objections back in 1958 about spending.  Fortunately, the naysayers were over ruled then.  We need to be as wise, and as visionary as our predecessors were in 1956, in NOT allowing the reactionaries to drive this bus of our politics and economics; because they won't drive us over a cliff, the prevailing metaphor.  They will drive us over a collapsing bridge.  But only if we let them make the decisions; so don't. 

We need to oppose them, and we need to do it NOW, today, and tomorrow.