Throughout his presidential campaign, Barack Obama spent a lot of time talking about his desire to reinvest in America’s infrastructure, both as a matter of safety and as a means of reinvigorating the sagging economy. The federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics has been undertaking an effort to geocode bridges from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory, and the map below is a product of that effort. The map shows all bridges deemed structurally deficient:
It’s also worth noting that of the 13,798 bridges in Wisconsin, 1,302 – or almost ten percent – have been deemed structurally deficient. While repairing and rebuilding infrastructure might have tangible benefits to our economy, it’s also the smart thing to do, because no one wants a repeat of what happened to the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis in 2007. Now’s the time to get our roads and bridges up to snuff, because as Grandma W. always said, and ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.
H/T to Deke Rivers at Caffeinated Politics.
