The Bay Bridge, which stretches between Oakland and San Francisco, California, has not had the best couple of weeks recently. In yet another incident that calls attention to our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, the bridge was shut down for six days following the collapse of over 2.5 tons of metal onto the bridge during rush hour on Oct. 27th. Fortunately no drivers were harmed in the accident, but the cracked steel beam that caused it is still a worrisome reminder of the sad state of many of our bridges and highways.

Earlier this year the American Society of Civil Engineers released a distressing report on U.S. infrastructure, giving the country an overall grade of ‘D’ and estimating the total cost of repairs to be about $2.2 trillion (!). You can view more details, including state-by-state statistics, from ASCE at http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/.

While this might seem to be bleak news overall, it’s important to recognize that we can also view this time as an opportunity to make vast improvements to our nation’s infrastructure. Because as much as we’d like to blame recent failures on the Bay Bridge troll, it comes down to current and future innovators to make our transportation system better, faster and stronger.

Filed under: Civil, e-News, Transportation

Tags: Civil, Transportation