Few Earmarks For Bridge Repairs After Minnesota Collapse

Amid the national hand-wringing after the Minnesota bridge collapse of 2007, members of Congress earmarked 10 times more money for new transportation projects than for bridge repair, according to a new report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

In the transportation appropriations bill for fiscal 2008, approved just months after the I-35 bridge collapse killed 13 people, members of Congress included more than 700 earmarks worth $574 million in Federal Highway Administration spending. Seventy-four of those earmarks sent just under $60 million to bridge repair -- even though one out of every four bridges in the United States needs work, according to a 2009 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The total amount earmarked for the federal highway program "could have been used to bring approximately 20 structurally deficient bridges per state or two bridges per Congressional district into a state of good repair," says PIRG's report. The good-government group attributes the lack of earmark funds for deficient bridges entirely to elected representatives' insatiable hunger for campaign cash.

"In a political system in which elected officials must raise huge sums of campaign contributions from major donors to win reelection, spending may be skewed toward road widening and new highway projects favored by developers, road builders and other interests," says the report, co-authored by PIRG's Lisa Gilbert and John Krieger.

"Deferring maintenance to build new capacity may seem senseless -- much like a family with a leaky roof who instead builds a new addition -- but it makes sense in Congress if money and politics favor those choices."

Using data from the Center for Responsive Politics, PIRG reports that "highway interests from the construction and transportation industry" contributed $80 million to federal campaigns during the 2008 election cycle.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is one senator who doesn't seem to have put his money where his mouth was after the I-35 collapse, at least according to a review of earmarks in the transportation bill by the Huffington Post.

''For too long, the federal government has focused on building new bridges at the expense of fixing old ones, and now we are living with the consequences,'' Schumer said in August 2007, according to the New York Times. ''Robbing Peter to pay Paul is no way to keep America's drivers safe.''

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Schumer's name appears on a dozen earmarks worth $10 million for various transportation projects in New York, only one of which involved fixing up an old bridge. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Huffington Post.

State legislators in Albany joined a rally on Tuesday to draw attention to the state's aging bridges after the Crown Point Bridge was deemed unsafe and shut down. The New York Department of Transportation has estimated that 1,526 bridges will be deficient within the next five years.

Schumer's remark about the federal government's spending priorities did not refer to earmarks, but U.S. PIRG's report calls them a "clear demonstration of the influence and prioritization of members of Congress, because their project requests circumvent agency review."

"Earmarking is kind of the one place where members of Congress actually choose" where money goes, said transportation policy expert Mark Stout in an interview with HuffPost. Stout, who lent his expertise to the report, spent 25 years working for the New Jersey Department of Transportation. "I've spent a lot of time in the weeds and in the mechanics of the funding of the industry."

In their report, U.S. PIRG did not call out any specific members of Congress but they did have some sharp words for the entire Mississippi delegation, one of several to designate zero earmarks to old bridges:

"The delegation from Mississippi," the report says, "secured funding for 19 earmarked projects at a cost of $29,414,000, and despite having a backlog of over 3,000 structurally-deficient bridges in the state, none of their earmarks went to bridge repair."

U.S. PIRG's report, titled "Greasing the Wheels," is available here.

Comments

[easarsfield]

It's funny how our government is willing to spend a fortune on a war in Afghanistan that's main objective is to create a secure environment for the Trans Afghanistan pipeline, rather than fix our road infrastructure here at home.

If the roads aren't safe to drive on, demand for oil is going to go down. Go figure.

[sueinmn]

Most the money that came to MN was used for road over-lays. Being T Pawlwnty is a wannabe these days, he has no interest in helping this state, only squashing what is left alive here!

[rileymon]

Well guess none of the brainerds out there know anything about putting salt on the bridges in the winter time because of freesing roads.Steel rust when it's exposed to tons and tons of salt
Now for the other common sense point there is a massive amount of federal tax on diesel fuel and has been for years.Every time they add another nickel or so they claim it's for the highways and bridges.Does any body out there know the billions of gallons of fuel bought in a year on transportation at 20 cents a gallon federal tax.
All those tax revenues must still be in Al Gores lock box where he put social security
Another good use for earmarks was the millions and millions of dollars sent to louisianna to spend on the levy's in New Orleans. In the past 50 years or so.If's just a little to obvious that the democrats in charge there did not spend the money where it was supposed to go!
Any body out there remember the bridge collapse on interstate 90 in NY. thats a toll road and it fell in.
How about the bridge collapse on interstate 95 in Connecticut remember that one They lost a bunch of people in that collapse. There are signs at the state line on interstate 95 when you enter the state of Connecticut .They say road closed travel at your own risk

[TJCole]

3,000 bad bridges in just one state..?

Thousands more all over America and sewers and dams are dangerously in need of repair where is the programs where are the real big Infrastructure projects...?

We are in such great need of this and it pays for itself over time ten fold...and of course creates Jobs..!

[bachmantsk]

Okay everybody sing along to the tune of London Bridges:

Pawlenty's bridges falling down, falling down, falling down
Pawlenty's bridges falling down,
Now he wants to be President.

[CR46]

Tim Pawlenty is responsible for every de..ath and injury caused by the bridge collapse.

[minerva117]

Tim Pawlenty laughed it up with his cronies after he vetoed a highway funding bill that had been passed by the state legislature which included a 3 cents per gallon gas tax. Then the bridge collapsed and he was all concerned about the condition of highways and bridges. Typical Repub hypocrit!!

[SangZe]

We need the collapse of another bridge, maybe one in Brooklyn, San Francisco, or Washington D.C., perhaps the loss of a few more lives. Then maybe someone in government will notice, especially if a congressman is on one of the bridges, just maybe.

[realpolitic]

When more bridges begin collapsing and lives are unfortunately lost, then the system will stop neglecting the disrepair of our bridges. It is shameful such an advanced nation so neglects its infrastructure.

[RobertFromMN]

Why spend our money at home when we have "nation-building" to do in Afghanistan and other lovely corner of the globe?

[Imzadi]

Fanned and faved!

[realpolitic]

So right, the far right did argue we should rebuild infrastructure there and in Iraq, but not at home!

[textynn]

of course we don't have money for roads and American infrastructure. We must spend our Trillions and the tax money of the next seven generations to serve the needs of today's Elite. There's still a lot of people to kill before they control the entire globe. DUH

[Hirnlego]

MAY 9, 2007

U.S. Infrastructure Found to Be in Disrepair

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117867434198996732.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

No one listened..

[RickCoMatic]

While the Presidents Emergency Legislation was being Pork-i-fied by the GOP Republican Senatorial Committee; the GOP Senators only concern with Minnesota was getting the bribe money and Slush Fund cash delivered up to St. Paul. The GOP's needed to "Pay the vigorish" to keep Minnesota's Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty happy, so Tee-Paw wouldn't do squat to send a Temporary Senator to Washington during the darkest and most critical days in our Country's history. With Pawlenty greased real good, the GOP's sent millions of Taxpayer Dollars up to Minnesota to fund the endless Legal Suits and Appeals in the effort to keep defeated Republican Senator Norm Coleman's Election Contest funded all the way to the Supreme Court, only to be unanimously declared ridiculous by angry Justices.
Had Senator Al Franken taken his seat, in Senate, without the Republican Obstructionism back then; funding for Minnesota's bridges would have been a top priority instead of diverting all that money elsewhere!

[FLRealist]

The I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis was not caused by lack of maintenance but by a design flaw that was then compounded by additional weight on the bridge due to construction equipment.

[CR46]

Get real> The bridge was structurally unsound and records of inspections prove it was unsound for yrs.

[wm1066]

I went over that bridge every day for 12 years and I saw alot of maintenance going on during that time. But seeing the pictures of what they were doing before the collapse scared me, it sure looked like the people working on the bridge had removed to much of the bridge, and had too much weight on it to be safe. I don't see it as a design flaw as much as the people in charge were incompetent, they were political hacks who didn't know what they were doing and hired bad contractors to do the job.

[edgarcaycedoc]

The deaths in the Minnesota bridge collapse were preventable. Because political expediency bought us into the myth that "Government is not the solution of the problem, government IS the problem," we stand on the cusp of deteriorating bridges and not enough money to fix them. Reaganomic­s--whether under Reagan, Bush or the "shrub" have failed horribly.

[Ranta]

I rented a Prius at the Minneapolis airport this summer. It was like driving a buckboard. The roads around the cities and up to Duluth were pathetic. Not only that, I didn't see building projects anywhere along the way. It's not just the bridges that are in bad shape.

[levibatgirl]

Tons of development along 35W and the crosstown. It started before the stimulus for the most part.

Our city streets are terrible for the most part.
Just terrible!

[jordan327]

Wonder what all those city union workers do all day.