Stuff falls apart

My buddy in Kentucky called today. Always good to hear from an old friend. He mentioned that on his way to visit his son in Louisville, the bridge was closed. The linked news article didn’t go into much detail, but apparently boaters noticed parts of the bridge falling into the water. That can’t be good. This is a major highway with a normal traffic volume around 80,000 cars per day. I myself drove over that very bridge last year -twice. How long has the bridge been unsafe?

Today I noticed there’s still detours on major roads to the south of me. There aren’t a lot of passes through the mountains. When a single road is blocked, detours can get lengthy. I’m surprised the road is still closed since hurricane Irene. The damage must be worse than originally thought.

I ran into my cousin today. She makes a weekly trip to the feed store from her house near the Canadian border. It’s about a 100 mile round trip. She’s quite concerned about the bridges and roads she travels. They are in bad condition and she fears one more storm could take out the only road to her house. As it is, she uses a big 4X4 SUV to make the trip, and is very careful how she loads it.

These are just a few snapshots of disintegrating infrastructure. I can’t but help wonder how bad things must be across the country. My guess is that we don’t really know. If a major bridge can be ignored until chunks of it start to rain down on boaters, something is wrong. Want to bet there’s a lot of “somethings” wrong?

-Sixbears