Published in the St. Cloud Times, St. Cloud, Minnesota
In the time since the tragic collapse of the I-35W bridge, we have learned that structural problems plague a significant portion of bridges in the United States.
A bridge has a life expectancy — just as humans do. If our personal health is in jeopardy, we take action. The same should be true of our infrastructure. According to a national bridge inventory, 73,764 bridges (12.4 percent) were classified as "structurally deficient" in 2006, including the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis. The American Society of Civil Engineers in 2005 gave the nation's bridge infrastructure a "C" grade in its Report Card for America's Infrastructure because of the large number of deficient bridges.
Is this acceptable to Congress? Absolutely not.
Centralized system
I'm frustrated that there isn't a centralized system that the federal government uses to further classify structurally deficient bridges as suffering from dangerous structural conditions, and I am frustrated that research and new technologies exist but are underutilized because of cost concerns, lack of training and lack of awareness.
Because it is financially and logistically infeasible to repair all problematic bridges in the short term, state highway administrations, bridge inspectors and the public rely on the results of research and technology development to avoid catastrophic and deadly collapses. The transportation research community has recognized bridges as a priority, and is putting available resources into both short and long-term research to improve safety. But unfortunately those available resources are slim.
I'll take that a step further and assert that money is never going to solve our bridge infrastructure problem because we're never going to be able to repair, rehab or replace all the bridges we need to due to sheer lack of time and resources.
I firmly believe that we need to do a 180-degree shift in our way of thinking here. We've got to approach the problem differently if we're going to successfully meet the nation's infrastructure needs in the near and far term.
Smart approach
The smart approach is to invest in high-quality. short and long-term research, and good tech transfer programs that help get the results of that research out into the community. We also need to build a tech-savvy and innovative work force of engineers and inspectors who are comfortable integrating new technology or techniques into their work.
Doing the above successfully is going to take a coordinated effort on the part of federal research and training entities such as the Federal Highway Administration's Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center and the Research and Innovative Technology Administration's University Transportation Centers, state DOTs, industry and academia.
Those groups are doing a good job of coordinating through the Transportation Research Board, AASHTO and other groups, but they especially need congressional support for research projects.
Just this month, as chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, I convened a hearing to examine the status, feasibility and affordability of the research and inspection tools we have both on hand and in progress. Currently, the FHWA, state highway administrations and universities are sponsoring and carrying out research to improve bridge design, maintenance and inspections. Current research covers a variety of fields, including materials, engineering design, technology development and modeling.
The challenges
However, transferring successful technologies to end users such as state highway administration officials is challenging because of cost concerns and training issues for advanced technology.
In transportation fields, technology transfer is a special challenge because no solution works well for everyone.
Differences in traffic loads, climate, size and shape, and other bridge characteristics mean that new engineering designs, materials and technologies may work well for a bridge engineer in California but not in New York or Florida. Thus, technology transfer efforts must include both determining the customer's unique needs and transferring the appropriate technology.
We must learn a lesson from your tragedy. Solving the nation's infrastructure challenge will take a long-term, dedicated effort on the part of all stakeholders. It is my hope that we can take advantage of innovative research and development to design and maintain bridges that will remain stable and safe for generations to come.
