Disillusion Sets In?
By Mitch Berg
The terrible state of the Hastings Bridge is something that happens when bridges get old. Simple fact – things that get built can fall right back down.
But suppressing the report?
The Admiral from Anti-Strib is not happy:
this bridge is in a sorry state. Tack welds are bad, bearings are frozen and rusted, there are cracks throughout the structure. Eight years ago there was a load limit placed on the bridge. No further load tests since.
I’m not going to go in to explicit detail, but in summary, this bridge could collapse at any time.
As recently as mid-December, the agency had refused to release the August report.
Now for the excuse.
It cited homeland security concerns, saying that criminals or terrorists could use the information to “determine the most vulnerable components of a bridge to target for attack by explosives or other means.”
Bullshit! Pawlenty, Molnau & Co. are willing, able, and have been playing Russian roulette with the public safety. This is political, and you can take that to the bank. A cover up was just exposed.
Yeah! I know. I just finished defending Molnau. I feel like one of those people in the Southwest Airlines commercial when the announcer says, “Wanna get away?” I dropped the ball big time defending Molnau.
Many of us have been defending Molnau. And while I’m not ready to throw her under the bus yet, there’s some explaining to be done.
And hiding behind “Homeland Security” isn’t an explanation.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Why not? Isn’t it true that a bridge already weak is a great target, and that the detailed information on the weakness would be critical to that nefarious enterprise? Isn’t it also unnecessary to “publicly release the report” to put the bridge repair at the top of your list of to-dos?
All I’m seeing is the same old problem we’ve had since long before the 35W bridge fell. That is, the legislature never put a priority on roads and bridges, and then wants to claim after the fact that roads and bridges are their highest priority and that they WOULD have funded them if they had just had more money. Well, they HAD more money, every year. They could fix this bridge any time they want, all they have to do is take some of the money they waste elsewhere and DO it.