How's your state's infrastructure?

[dropkickpa]

Let's hear about your state's infrasturcture woes. The stimulus bill doesn't nearly touch what is needed for us to get up to substandard functioning.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09050/950278-100.stm

Emergency closing ordered for Charleroi Monessen Bridge
Thursday, February 19, 2009
By Jessica LaDow, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Charleroi Monessen Bridge, which connects Route 88 and Schoonmaker Avenue across the Monongahela River, was closed today after an inspection showed signs of deterioration.

PennDOT officials are in the process of closing the bridge and setting up detours. They don't know how long repairs will take.

About 9,000 vehicles pass over the bridge every 24 hours.

[Blue_In_AK]

1. What's infrastructure?

Are you talking about roads and stuff? Nada.

(only a little :sarcasm: )

[ColbertWatcher]

14. When you find out ...

... make sure you post what you know here.

[Blue_In_AK]

16. LOL.

[old mark]

2. Much of it is in bad repair - we are far enough north to get freezing roads

and far enough south to get really hot humid summers, so we get bad potholes, concrete falls from bridges, things crack from expansion and contraction.
We also have lost our once great rail transportation system I live near Reading, PA, and have to drive nearly to Philly to get a passenger train, and of course so does everyone else, so the main roads are overcrowded all day.
We also have a huge volume of heavy interstate truck traffic whicn wears the bridges and roads faster.

We also need water and sewer plants.

Other than that, most of the sidewalks are pretty good (homeowners pay for them.)


mark

[dropkickpa]

3. And another

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09050/950201-56.stm

Roads set to close for Tri-Boro bridge rehab
Thursday, February 19, 2009
By Jon Schmitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Rehabilitation of a long, curved bridge on the Tri-Boro Expressway in East Pittsburgh will begin Monday, closing several roads in the project area, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has announced.

The structurally deficient bridge crosses railroad tracks, Turtle Creek and a local road directly under the Westinghouse Bridge (Route 30). Route 30 traffic will not be affected by the $14 million project.

The 1,192-foot-long steel bridge was built in 1974. The project includes replacing the bridge deck, expansion dams, bearings, roadway approach slabs, several piers and an abutment, and substructure repairs and drainage improvements.

Approximately 8,000 vehicles use the bridge on an average day. About 6,000 vehicles use East Pittsburgh-McKeesport Boulevard daily, PennDOT said.

Of course, having more than 1,000 bridges in Allegheny County alone, I could spend weeks just detailing bridge problems, ignoring all of the other infrastucture issues.

[Stellabella]

4. I'm in Minnesota. One bridge already fell.

The roads are in terrible shape all over, even though there are some major projects going on. In my neck of the woods, state highways are full of patch jobs and it's like riding over the prairie in a covered wagon.

Well, not quite, but it's pretty bad.

[dropkickpa]

5. We're terrified that will happen here

We have so many damn bridges in such bad repair, PennDOT inspectors were scrambling like mad after the collapse to inspect them all. Our water systems are all going to crap, too.

The power grid here seems to have been able to handle to power outages better than Kentucky and point's south were able to, but who know what our Achille's heel is until disaster strikes.

[gratuitous]

9. The I-35 bridge had a 50 rating

National transportation rankings of bridges placed the I-35 bridge in the lowest 4%, with a ranking of 50 on a scale of 100 for structural integrity. On my commute every day, I pass under a bridge that has a ranking of (this is not a typo) 2.

We need to spend money on roads, bridges, schools, and government offices the way we spend money on new-fangled Pentagon weapons systems designed for non-existent threats. Now, where could we get that kind of money???

:think:

[Stellabella]

17. I know. It's a crime.

And the fact that Timmy the Tool was re-elected after he vetoed funding for transportation (TWICE) and that bridge fell is a testament to the stupidity of many of my fellow citizens.

[notadmblnd]

6. Around here, Michigan drivers only have two seasons

Winter and construction.

[TahitiNut]

20. Yup. Orange cones and barrels are the first signs of spring.

And we get plenty of time to gaze upon them as traffic inches by.

[notadmblnd]

21. I think they beat the skunks out.

and I've smelled a couple of them recently.

[cboy4]

7. I don't think I'd want to be standing under or be on top of a

California state bridge during an earthquake. :scared:

And we're not going to have the money to fix things for a long time thanks to people who milk the welfare system.

[AlCzervik]

8. me neither and with the money mess here nothing will be getting fixed or brought up to code

anytime soon.

[LeftyMom]

11. And then there are the potholes that resemble bomb craters.

[LynneSin]

10. Delaware could use some help but we're lucky in some ways

We're a small state so we don't have that many roads to fix.

We put an expensive toll booth right on the Maryland border. With so many communters coming up from Maryland and other travellers on 95 - well we make a great deal of our highway monies off of that. And don't bitch - Maryland has a couple tolls on 95 too.

[ellenfl]

12. florida always has infrastructure projects going so i would

guess we are ok in that regard. of course, jebbie giving away all kinds of dough to his cronies, in his quest to privatize everything, has us in pretty sad shape for money for other things.

ellen fl

[leftynyc]

13. I drive over a bridge

that was supposed to be replaced 15 years ago. So, not so good.

[Xicano]

15. Southern California seems to be pretty much normal

As far as I can see we're not that far off from what we normally see.

[Greyhound]

18. Please, the road beds are breaking up in LA. n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

23. If you think everything is fine in southern California, check out the videos at this link ...

... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5095144&mesg_id=5095144

[doc03]

19. We have three Ohio river bridges locally that were

condemned decades ago and we can't even get the money to tare them down. I-70 from Washington PA to Cambridge, Ohio is the worse stretch of road in the entire interstate system. We could easily spend the entire infrastructure portion of the Stimulus Bill in Ohio, PA and WV.

[lonestarnot]

22. Potholes big enough to become MIA!

[XemaSab]

24. California?

Horrible. x(

[blonndee]

25. My home state is NM. My "adopted" state is OK. The roads in both have always been atrocious.

I thought NM roads were bad until I moved to Oklahoma. Truly, they are shameful. Not only are they in poor condition, but perhaps more importantly, they are poorly designed, which makes them quite dangerous in and around metro areas like OKC and Tulsa. Not only are the fast roads bumpy and full of ruts and potholes, but exits are randomly left and right. This is especially true in the OKC area, where exits are often scarily sharp and one never knows whether one will have the right of way or should yield while exiting until the last second, if ever. Futhermore, even if you know the area fairly well, if you miss ONE single sign, it's quite easy to end up five or more miles out of your way due to sorry-ass exit signs. I lived in OK for 4 1/2 years and still fought the traffic and poor roads and got confused, and it's really a miracle I never had an accident. I feel so bad for the visitors and elderly who might need more than a second to figure out what's up with these roads.

P.S. About road conditions only: Have any of you driven on 1-40 from the OK panhandle to OKC? It's so awful, it actually made me and my driving partner laugh hysterically throughout the entire drive after we realized this really WAS the interstate we were meant to drive. Bump.....buDUMP....budUMP....budUMP....budUMP....budUMP....buDUMP...for HOURS. LOL.