The Weasel Words

On August 1 the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed suddenly and catastrophically dumping dozens of vehicles into the Mississippi River and stranding many more. There were an as yet undetermined number of people killed and dozens more injured. A vital transportation link in this major American city was destroyed.



We take our infrastructure for granted in this country with not much consciousness of how important it is to our health and well being. Consider the upheaval we in the Bay Area experienced when the Bay Bridge was out of service for a month in the wake of the Loma Prieta earthquake. People in the Twin Cities area will be without a similar transit link for a longer period.



Imagine the effect of losing our potable water supply for a month, or even a week. What would happen if a major sewerage treatment plant was knocked out of service? Some ten years ago when I was working in downtown San Francisco, a garden-variety construction screw-up knocked out the electricity for six hours. Things came to a halt. Six hours! Imagine six weeks.


What the bridge in Minneapolis shows us, or should show us, is that all our infrastructure is vulnerable. Knowledgeable people working on these things have been saying for some time that we’re not maintaining our infrastructure and we’re moving into peril as a consequence. Yet, other than the typical run of bloviation from the political leadership, little gets done.


The I-35W bridge, along with over 70,000 others have been deemed structurally deficient. There’s been a lot of speculation about what that means and doesn’t mean.


What it means in essence is that some engineers looked at the bridges and found areas of potential structural weakness. They were then faced with a dilemma of how to report their findings. They could not in good conscience say the bridge was okay, because obviously it wasn’t. Nor could they call for the bridge to be closed until repaired because 1) it would not happen and; 2) they would never get work inspecting bridges again.


So they said the bridges were “structurally deficient” which is weasel wording for “somebody should do something here, we don’t know what but in case something bad happens, our asses are covered.” This is not meant to denigrate these people, just to say that they know how their business works and that it works by denial and deferment.


Anyone who has worked in the infrastructure business knows that no one wants to put money or effort into maintenance and repair. Everyone loves a shiny new project. They put plaques on them with the names of all the folks involved. They hold dedication ceremonies that you can watch on the evening news. Politicians who happened to be in office at the time cite the project when they go for higher office. By contrast, maintenance and repair are orphans.


And then when something like I-35W happens there is a run of concern, studies are commissioned, blue ribbon panels make reports. Will anything change? Here’s hoping, we will be watching, you should be too because it might be your bridge next time. What’s needed most is a commitment of more money. In Minneapolis, I-35W was scheduled for replacement albeit at some date well into the future – again asses were at least partially covered. Had there been the money available maybe it would have been replaced in time, who can tell?


It’s interesting that a number of reports have pointed out that the Governor of Minnesota had recently vetoed a gas tax increase that might have provided some money for this work. While we can all be sure the good Governor now regrets this, we also damn well know that vetoing tax increases plays well politically. This will change only when we face further infrastructure failures, such as the bridges, and that we need to pay full price for the way we live.


More later.