Like a bridge over troubled ... -[or is it a troubled bridge over ...]

I found myself crossing the Kellogg Bridge eastbound a couple of weeks ago and had to wait for the semaphore at Mounds Boulevard about three cars back from the light. I found myself wondering how solid the bridge below me was and think I actually sighed when the light turned green.

We all cross so many bridges so many times that we seldom think about it. Some bridges come so close to street level and are so short that we often don’t even notice that we are on one. [For two geographically diverse examples, think Minnehaha over the Phalen Creek bed by where Hamm’s used to make malt beverages or Edgcumbe just east of Hamline.]

So when something like last year’s Mpls. bridge collapse happens we get generally horrified and feel thankful that we weren't there. And Saturday’s loss of a piece of concrete from Maryland Avenue over I-35E did not reassure us.

One of our big problems in public works is that government does not budget like companies do and there is no accounting for depreciation in the balance sheet. Another is that since we tie most roadwork to gasoline tax receipts rather than whether there is a public purpose associated with their construction and maintenance we often build things we don’t need and maintain some things without ever actually asking whether we still need them and don’t adequately maintain things which really need to be maintained.

We should be grateful that nobody was killed and that we were able to put both the bridge and the freeway beneath it back into use so quickly. And we should be grateful that maybe, just maybe, somebody who can do something to prevent this kind of thing from happening again might actually do something.

We know that there will be political types who will run with this, but somehow I doubt that any of them will actually examine the weaknesses in our financing and planning schemes for our public infrastructures.