16 ms·

MI officials fast-track bridge fix after man says it 'collapsed under my feet'

146 points by lando2319 4y ago

asdff 4y ago
Infrastructure in the midwest is aging and failing and unfortunately the region lacks the tax base to do much in the way of overhauling it. Arguably the more costly issue than aging bridges are the aging storm drain systems, sewers, and water mains. Thankfully most electric is above ground and service can be restored usually soon after storms disrupt connections (running a wire off a spool is a lot easier and cheaper of course than tearing up an arterial road to access the water main). As storms grow stronger and dump more water at once with climate change, these systems are further strained. When the wastewater system backs up in a storm waste is usually diverted to watersheds, many of which are already eutrophic. These are just the public issues too, private property is even more poorly maintained. As the housing stock ages groundwater may intrude into your basement foundation, your mains themselves may be some ancient hardware in need of a retrofit before they burst that might cost a huge sum relative to the value of the home. Who knows the state of the roof or how much mold lurks behind the drywall. Eventually the federal government is going to have to write some grants, both to state dots, but also county dots who are in charge of a lot of infrastructure, municipalities, and also property owners facing the prospects of condemnation due to natural causes. I can't imagine that will be an easy or a clean process when it eventually becomes necessary in the next few decades.
- zip1234 4y ago
  I'm in the midwest and they are spending money widening roads and freeways while letting everything go into disrepair.
- maxsilver 4y ago
  > the region lacks the tax base to do much in the way of overhauling it We have plenty of tax base (speaking of Michigan specifically, we've got approximately double the total population and parcels of property in Michigan right now, than we had back in ~1950, when we built half of this stuff). We just keep wasting the public funds elsewhere. (i.e, 'Economic Development Groups' / 'Public Private Partnerships' / Tourism + State Advertising, additional spending on Police, etc.)
  - asdff 4y ago
    I expect in michigan like anywhere else in the rust belt that there are plenty of municipalities that are hurting for funding. You can't lose the population like you've lost within the actual city limits of detroit or flint (never mind the metro area population might be unchanged due to people flocking to suburban municipalities), and continue to sufficiently maintain infrastructure fit to handle twice the population. Another issue with some suburbs is an aging population. A window generates a lot less tax revenue for the city than two working people in that home, and thats increasingly a larger portion of the population. Schools have closed because there aren't as many families in the area as there were in decades past. Even NYC struggles maintaining infrastructure due to how costly it can be, and that city is far better positioned financially than anything in the midwest, a lot better than Chicago certainly where I see buckets catching drips from the roof of OHare even on a sunny day.
    - maxsilver 4y ago
      > I expect in michigan like anywhere else in the rust belt that there are plenty of municipalities that are hurting for funding. Only because we stole their funding, not because they are under-funded. > You can't lose the population like you've lost within the actual city limits of detroit or flint (never mind the metro area population might be unchanged due to people flocking to suburban municipalities), and continue to sufficiently maintain infrastructure fit to handle twice the population You absolutely can. Infrastructure spending in Michigan is less than ~10% of tax revenue in all townships and all counties across the state. You could double all road spending, and it would barely even be noticed. (Using real numbers, in Kent County Michigan, for example, the entire county road commission yearly budget spend is just ~$9.69 per person per month. It's literally cheaper than the cheapest Netflix plan to maintain all of that infrastructure). Yes, county roads aren't every road (there's city and state and federal stuff mixed in there) -- but those numbers are just tiny portions of the budget their respective budgets too. And yes, there are hyper-rural counties that have no cities and therefore have to spend more, to service those roads across such a small population. But even those counties only average $20 to $35 a month. (Using Cheboygan County Michigan as an example, comes in around $32/month per person). It's really not a funding issue. There's zero problems with the tax base, or population, or aging. It's truly-and-only a priority issue. We keep taking money away from roads and other infrastructure, we spend it elsewhere (usually on junk) and then complain that "municipalities are hurting for funding" as if it's some great mystery.
- hemreldop 4y ago
mhmmbt 4y ago
shreyshnaccount 4y ago
- semireg 4y ago
  Infrastructure spending.
- lando2319 4y ago
  I posted it.
- avgDev 4y ago
  Why are you on HN?
- tsomctl 4y ago
  While I agree that it's a somewhat mundane article, there's normally comments that make it interesting. For example, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31436869 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31436869
curiousgal 4y ago
The American Dream: getting wronged by a city and suing them!
- jnovek 4y ago
  Dude was standing on a bridge which crumbled under him like a cartoon. You really, truly, honestly think he should have to pay his own medical bills for this?
  - curiousgal 4y ago
    Did I say that? I'm just saying he's lucky!
    - pg_bot 4y ago
      I'm going to guess if you were to ask him that he would prefer to have the bridge stay intact while he was walking on it.
      - pooper 4y ago
        The fact that we have to sue the government for it to cover the cost of medical treatment after falling because of literally crumbling infrastructure is what is ridiculous. They should be falling head over feet to offer to pay this person.
- dang 4y ago
  Please don't post nationalistic flamebait. It leads to nationalistic flamewars, which are one of the things we want to avoid here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - juanani 4y ago
    Unless it's about Russia, then flame away!
Arrath 4y ago
The state of infrastructure, both physical and technical, in this country is quite sorry. There would be plenty of well paid union and trades jobs to be had if we could pony up the funds to rehab, repair, and replace the crumbling bridges, roads, pipelines, sewers, etc across the country.
- bxparks 4y ago
  Similar to the software industry, politicians don't get elected for maintaining old bridges. They get elected by building new bridges.
  - wwweston 4y ago
    Can you explain more about how this works? Even if we're being totally cynical and seeing politics entirely in terms of who can distribute favors within their network (which I think is at best partly true), it seems to me contracts to repair or rebuild bridges could be at least as lucrative as building a new bridge.
    - nemomarx 4y ago
      I don't think it necessarily has to be about kickbacks - it's also about acclaim and reputation? In software, you talk about a project you headed or a new feature you developed when you're looking at promotions. In a political career, a new bridge or a new project has more advantages than simply upkeeping an old one for basically the same reason - it can be associated with you specifically in a stronger way, you can talk about it as an accomplishment to more people. "I funded repairs so this bridge didn't fall" is a lot more of a non event, at least until the bridge actually falls and someone has to be blamed.
      - Arrath 4y ago
        > I don't think it necessarily has to be about kickbacks - it's also about acclaim and reputation? Exactly. The classic ground-breaking or ribbon cutting ceremonies attract a lot more acclaim than "We're going to shut down one lane of the road a a time for 3 months to re-pave it and make traffic living hell"
every 4y ago
egberts1 4y ago
Someone should copy the way that Japanese do lightening-fast road maintenance. These roads in Japan are like pristine and awesomely smooth; USA, not so much.
mishftw 4y ago
I lived not far from here when I was in Detroit. Honestly this guy is lucky not to be seriously injured. The highway, M-10 or the Lodge Freeway, in my opinion should be converted to a boulevard that supports multimodal transit. This freeway cut off my neighborhood from the more vibrant (as it can get for Detroit) downtown and midtown neighborhoods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-10_(Michigan_highway) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-10_(Michigan_highway)
- oefrha 4y ago
  Isn’t it sort of a gift to be cut off from downtown Detroit? I’ve never been there but I’ve got an acquaintance who was held at gun point while fueling in “vibrant” downtown Detroit…
  - aaronbeekay 4y ago
    I live in Detroit, a couple of miles north of downtown. I wouldn’t think twice about wandering around downtown, anywhere downtown, at any hour of the day or night. It’s just not dangerous at all. There are certainly neighborhoods where I wouldn’t do that, but the most surprising thing for me when I moved here was how aggressively friendly everybody is, and how off-base the “Detroit is a crime-ridden wasteland” comments are.
    - t-3 4y ago
      Yep. It's not like crime doesn't exist, but you're probably not going to encounter it unless you're a criminal or unlucky. Almost all of the murders are about drug money.
  - lostlogin 4y ago
    There is someone who was held at gunpoint in pretty much every town on earth. Poor guy. Stupid jokes aside, the safest city on earth has victims of crime.
    - oefrha 4y ago
andrew_ 4y ago
MDOT has been in shambles since I was born in Michigan in the 70s. Infrastructure is a very state-to-state thing as well. FDOT (Florida) appears at least, to be more competent and aware.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
  Save for their collapsing pedestrian bridges.
  - Kon-Peki 4y ago
    That collapsing bridge was supposed to be 174 feet long and was going to cost around $13 million. $75k per linear foot. And it was insanely ugly. The replacement bridge has a beautiful design but is expected to cost $15 million - $87k per linear foot! At the same time as the Miami pedestrian bridge collapse, CDOT (Chicago...) was building this gorgeous 620 foot long pedestrian bridge [1] with a final cost of $26 million. $42k per linear foot. And they didn't interrupt 6 active rail lines or a 6-lane "boulevard" during construction. So clearly, we can build nice things at reasonable prices. But how do we make it standard, rather than something where we get lucky every once in a while? I have no idea... [1] https://www.exp.com/project/35th-street-pedestrian-bridge/ https://www.exp.com/project/35th-street-pedestrian-bridge/
- notacoward 4y ago
  The only thing saving FDOT is that they don't have snow and ice (especially ice below the surface) to deal with. They can build and maintain roads in an entirely different way because of that.
gwbas1c 4y ago
Honestly, I think the story about Hydes is more interesting than the bridge itself.
MrLeap 4y ago
There's a lot to unpack here. Guy enters the news for being the good guy donating a baseball to a museum instead of collecting a big check for it. Later, on his way to a baseball game while discussing things with a "fellow attorney" he falls through a hole in a public bridge? Is there an award for greatest plaintiff advantage? I can imagine him on stage next to a school bus full of paralegal orphans. Glad the dude is okay.
- geonic 4y ago
  He also lost his 21 month old son in 2018. Poor guy.
- yabones 4y ago
  And he didn't just fall through the bridge, he dusted himself off and went to the game anyways! Guy didn't even go to the hospital for days despite being obviously concussed...
  - klyrs 4y ago
    Funny thing about brain injuries... we don't always make the best decisions in their aftermath.
  - londons_explore 4y ago
    - ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
      What a shitty thing for you to say.
    - s5fs 4y ago
      I have to disagree as you have no evidence to support your position. Based on the information provided, it seems highly unlikely to me that a guy who passed up an easy payday for a baseball would get an attorney friend to lie for what is likely going to be a very small claim. He still attended the game, and another game a couple days later, which likely rules out substantial suffering. So, given the low potential payout what would be his motivation? Simplest explanation is the guy just fell through an ill-maintained bridge. Could happen to anyone, really!
newaccount2021 4y ago
JTbane 4y ago
It'd be nice if politicans funded butter (infra) and not guns (ridiculous military spending and foreign aid)
BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 4y ago
The rebar is totally rusted. Last properly inspected maybe a decade ago. It takes time to get to that state of deterioration. Also a hazard to traffic below from chunks falling off.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
paulmd 4y ago
There is a bridge in Flint where the support pillars are held together by giant steel clamps because the concrete is crumbling underneath them. As you go northbound on I-75 and it makes that 90-degree left turn next to some kind of auto plant, there is a 3-level interchange and the support pillars have giant clamps on them. Every time I drive under it, it's a bit of a laugh, but who knows how safe it really actually is. I don't think that's an exception either. The state of infrastructure in this country is indeed terrible and people have been sounding the alarm since forever, and it just never gets fixed. But there is always money for new tanks that get sent straight to the boneyard, or fighting whatever extremely-important war we're into this year.
- mfer 4y ago
  The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is doing a terrible job. A recent audit found problems in the way they audit bids for work. I've spoken with people at road construction companies who have told me about changes that make the situation worse than a few years ago for the speed and cost of building roads. Policy things making it slower and more expensive that are baked in to the contracts. It's not just spending, which isn't efficient. Michigan has been (for decades) on the of the lowest spending states per capita on roads. This is across both Republicans and Democrats in the governor's seat.
  - GravityisaHoax 4y ago
    No wonder their roads are so bad.
- p1mrx 4y ago
  These pillars?: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9825563,-83.7311805,3a,90y,351.93h,103.67t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHPOzGliaHWPkyza8aXvv4A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9825563,-83.7311805,3a,90y,3...
  - paulmd 4y ago
    Yup! That next bridge 100 feet farther north looks even worse too, lol. Don't think you're supposed to be able to see the deck like that. From what I remember, that set of bridges has had problems with chunks coming off and hitting people as they drive on the highway. A chunk of concrete at 70mph is absolutely lethal.
TimPC 4y ago
The US had designed a system where large numbers of municipalities need more revenue then they actually produce. This has led to large swathes of the country having crumbling infrastructure as tax revenues are not adequate to maintenance. The solution is to maintain things like highways federally and move to a system of living that generates more funds. This likely means higher property tax rates in suburbs which is wildly unpopular and part of the reason all the infrastructure is crumbling. I know the specific piece of infrastructure isn’t in a suburb but failing cities have similar revenue problems.
- zip1234 4y ago
  That piece of infrastructure (the entire highway for that matter) only goes from downtown Detroit to the outer suburbs. It is there for commuters.
- threads2 4y ago
  "Build back better" hahahahhahaha
bmitc 4y ago
I always look at bridges and wonder who inspects all of our infrastructure and how often. Looking at the underneath picture of that bridge, it appears absolutely no one is inspecting these things. How bad are things getting when we can't even trust the bridges we walk and drive on?
- s5fs 4y ago
  I think there's a gap between an inspector turning in a report and the repairs being prioritized, funded, and executed. Out here in Oregon we had a tunnel collapse and kill the inspector (this was back in 1999). News reported that the tunnel was inspected twice the year before it collapsed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_L._Edwards_Tunnel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_L._Edwards_Tunnel
moneywoes 4y ago
isn't the MI govt under a huge deficit?
- ryathal 4y ago
  MI hasn't had any real budget issues for a decade. There was a brief period early in the pandemic when things were looking grim, but the feds flooded sates with money.
- phkahler 4y ago
  >> isn't the MI govt under a huge deficit? Not since education got funded by the lottery. They promised if we got a lottery the money would all go to education. Never mind that for every dollar that went to education from the lottery, there was a dollar reduction coming from the general fund which got diverted.... apparently not to infrastructure.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

146 points by lando2319 4y ago

Infrastructure in the midwest is aging and failing and unfortunately the region lacks the tax base to do much in the way of overhauling it. Arguably the more costly issue than aging bridges are the aging storm drain systems, sewers, and water mains. Thankfully most electric is above ground and service can be restored usually soon after storms disrupt connections (running a wire off a spool is a lot easier and cheaper of course than tearing up an arterial road to access the water main). As storms grow stronger and dump more water at once with climate change, these systems are further strained. When the wastewater system backs up in a storm waste is usually diverted to watersheds, many of which are already eutrophic. These are just the public issues too, private property is even more poorly maintained. As the housing stock ages groundwater may intrude into your basement foundation, your mains themselves may be some ancient hardware in need of a retrofit before they burst that might cost a huge sum relative to the value of the home. Who knows the state of the roof or how much mold lurks behind the drywall. Eventually the federal government is going to have to write some grants, both to state dots, but also county dots who are in charge of a lot of infrastructure, municipalities, and also property owners facing the prospects of condemnation due to natural causes. I can't imagine that will be an easy or a clean process when it eventually becomes necessary in the next few decades.

zip1234 4y ago
I'm in the midwest and they are spending money widening roads and freeways while letting everything go into disrepair.
maxsilver 4y ago
> the region lacks the tax base to do much in the way of overhauling it We have plenty of tax base (speaking of Michigan specifically, we've got approximately double the total population and parcels of property in Michigan right now, than we had back in ~1950, when we built half of this stuff). We just keep wasting the public funds elsewhere. (i.e, 'Economic Development Groups' / 'Public Private Partnerships' / Tourism + State Advertising, additional spending on Police, etc.)
- asdff 4y ago
  I expect in michigan like anywhere else in the rust belt that there are plenty of municipalities that are hurting for funding. You can't lose the population like you've lost within the actual city limits of detroit or flint (never mind the metro area population might be unchanged due to people flocking to suburban municipalities), and continue to sufficiently maintain infrastructure fit to handle twice the population. Another issue with some suburbs is an aging population. A window generates a lot less tax revenue for the city than two working people in that home, and thats increasingly a larger portion of the population. Schools have closed because there aren't as many families in the area as there were in decades past. Even NYC struggles maintaining infrastructure due to how costly it can be, and that city is far better positioned financially than anything in the midwest, a lot better than Chicago certainly where I see buckets catching drips from the roof of OHare even on a sunny day.
  - maxsilver 4y ago
    > I expect in michigan like anywhere else in the rust belt that there are plenty of municipalities that are hurting for funding. Only because we stole their funding, not because they are under-funded. > You can't lose the population like you've lost within the actual city limits of detroit or flint (never mind the metro area population might be unchanged due to people flocking to suburban municipalities), and continue to sufficiently maintain infrastructure fit to handle twice the population You absolutely can. Infrastructure spending in Michigan is less than ~10% of tax revenue in all townships and all counties across the state. You could double all road spending, and it would barely even be noticed. (Using real numbers, in Kent County Michigan, for example, the entire county road commission yearly budget spend is just ~$9.69 per person per month. It's literally cheaper than the cheapest Netflix plan to maintain all of that infrastructure). Yes, county roads aren't every road (there's city and state and federal stuff mixed in there) -- but those numbers are just tiny portions of the budget their respective budgets too. And yes, there are hyper-rural counties that have no cities and therefore have to spend more, to service those roads across such a small population. But even those counties only average $20 to $35 a month. (Using Cheboygan County Michigan as an example, comes in around $32/month per person). It's really not a funding issue. There's zero problems with the tax base, or population, or aging. It's truly-and-only a priority issue. We keep taking money away from roads and other infrastructure, we spend it elsewhere (usually on junk) and then complain that "municipalities are hurting for funding" as if it's some great mystery.
hemreldop 4y ago

mhmmbt 4y ago

shreyshnaccount 4y ago

semireg 4y ago
Infrastructure spending.
lando2319 4y ago
I posted it.
avgDev 4y ago
Why are you on HN?
tsomctl 4y ago
While I agree that it's a somewhat mundane article, there's normally comments that make it interesting. For example, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31436869 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31436869

curiousgal 4y ago

The American Dream: getting wronged by a city and suing them!

jnovek 4y ago
Dude was standing on a bridge which crumbled under him like a cartoon. You really, truly, honestly think he should have to pay his own medical bills for this?
- curiousgal 4y ago
  Did I say that? I'm just saying he's lucky!
  - pg_bot 4y ago
    I'm going to guess if you were to ask him that he would prefer to have the bridge stay intact while he was walking on it.
    - pooper 4y ago
      The fact that we have to sue the government for it to cover the cost of medical treatment after falling because of literally crumbling infrastructure is what is ridiculous. They should be falling head over feet to offer to pay this person.
dang 4y ago
Please don't post nationalistic flamebait. It leads to nationalistic flamewars, which are one of the things we want to avoid here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- juanani 4y ago
  Unless it's about Russia, then flame away!

Arrath 4y ago

The state of infrastructure, both physical and technical, in this country is quite sorry. There would be plenty of well paid union and trades jobs to be had if we could pony up the funds to rehab, repair, and replace the crumbling bridges, roads, pipelines, sewers, etc across the country.

bxparks 4y ago
Similar to the software industry, politicians don't get elected for maintaining old bridges. They get elected by building new bridges.
- wwweston 4y ago
  Can you explain more about how this works? Even if we're being totally cynical and seeing politics entirely in terms of who can distribute favors within their network (which I think is at best partly true), it seems to me contracts to repair or rebuild bridges could be at least as lucrative as building a new bridge.
  - nemomarx 4y ago
    I don't think it necessarily has to be about kickbacks - it's also about acclaim and reputation? In software, you talk about a project you headed or a new feature you developed when you're looking at promotions. In a political career, a new bridge or a new project has more advantages than simply upkeeping an old one for basically the same reason - it can be associated with you specifically in a stronger way, you can talk about it as an accomplishment to more people. "I funded repairs so this bridge didn't fall" is a lot more of a non event, at least until the bridge actually falls and someone has to be blamed.
    - Arrath 4y ago
      > I don't think it necessarily has to be about kickbacks - it's also about acclaim and reputation? Exactly. The classic ground-breaking or ribbon cutting ceremonies attract a lot more acclaim than "We're going to shut down one lane of the road a a time for 3 months to re-pave it and make traffic living hell"

every 4y ago

egberts1 4y ago

Someone should copy the way that Japanese do lightening-fast road maintenance. These roads in Japan are like pristine and awesomely smooth; USA, not so much.

mishftw 4y ago

I lived not far from here when I was in Detroit. Honestly this guy is lucky not to be seriously injured. The highway, M-10 or the Lodge Freeway, in my opinion should be converted to a boulevard that supports multimodal transit. This freeway cut off my neighborhood from the more vibrant (as it can get for Detroit) downtown and midtown neighborhoods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-10_(Michigan_highway) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-10_(Michigan_highway)

oefrha 4y ago
Isn’t it sort of a gift to be cut off from downtown Detroit? I’ve never been there but I’ve got an acquaintance who was held at gun point while fueling in “vibrant” downtown Detroit…
- aaronbeekay 4y ago
  I live in Detroit, a couple of miles north of downtown. I wouldn’t think twice about wandering around downtown, anywhere downtown, at any hour of the day or night. It’s just not dangerous at all. There are certainly neighborhoods where I wouldn’t do that, but the most surprising thing for me when I moved here was how aggressively friendly everybody is, and how off-base the “Detroit is a crime-ridden wasteland” comments are.
  - t-3 4y ago
    Yep. It's not like crime doesn't exist, but you're probably not going to encounter it unless you're a criminal or unlucky. Almost all of the murders are about drug money.
- lostlogin 4y ago
  There is someone who was held at gunpoint in pretty much every town on earth. Poor guy. Stupid jokes aside, the safest city on earth has victims of crime.
  - oefrha 4y ago

andrew_ 4y ago

MDOT has been in shambles since I was born in Michigan in the 70s. Infrastructure is a very state-to-state thing as well. FDOT (Florida) appears at least, to be more competent and aware.

kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
Save for their collapsing pedestrian bridges.
- Kon-Peki 4y ago
  That collapsing bridge was supposed to be 174 feet long and was going to cost around $13 million. $75k per linear foot. And it was insanely ugly. The replacement bridge has a beautiful design but is expected to cost $15 million - $87k per linear foot! At the same time as the Miami pedestrian bridge collapse, CDOT (Chicago...) was building this gorgeous 620 foot long pedestrian bridge [1] with a final cost of $26 million. $42k per linear foot. And they didn't interrupt 6 active rail lines or a 6-lane "boulevard" during construction. So clearly, we can build nice things at reasonable prices. But how do we make it standard, rather than something where we get lucky every once in a while? I have no idea... [1] https://www.exp.com/project/35th-street-pedestrian-bridge/ https://www.exp.com/project/35th-street-pedestrian-bridge/
notacoward 4y ago
The only thing saving FDOT is that they don't have snow and ice (especially ice below the surface) to deal with. They can build and maintain roads in an entirely different way because of that.

gwbas1c 4y ago

Honestly, I think the story about Hydes is more interesting than the bridge itself.

MrLeap 4y ago

There's a lot to unpack here. Guy enters the news for being the good guy donating a baseball to a museum instead of collecting a big check for it. Later, on his way to a baseball game while discussing things with a "fellow attorney" he falls through a hole in a public bridge? Is there an award for greatest plaintiff advantage? I can imagine him on stage next to a school bus full of paralegal orphans. Glad the dude is okay.

geonic 4y ago
He also lost his 21 month old son in 2018. Poor guy.
yabones 4y ago
And he didn't just fall through the bridge, he dusted himself off and went to the game anyways! Guy didn't even go to the hospital for days despite being obviously concussed...
- klyrs 4y ago
  Funny thing about brain injuries... we don't always make the best decisions in their aftermath.
- londons_explore 4y ago
  - ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
    What a shitty thing for you to say.
  - s5fs 4y ago
    I have to disagree as you have no evidence to support your position. Based on the information provided, it seems highly unlikely to me that a guy who passed up an easy payday for a baseball would get an attorney friend to lie for what is likely going to be a very small claim. He still attended the game, and another game a couple days later, which likely rules out substantial suffering. So, given the low potential payout what would be his motivation? Simplest explanation is the guy just fell through an ill-maintained bridge. Could happen to anyone, really!

newaccount2021 4y ago

JTbane 4y ago

It'd be nice if politicans funded butter (infra) and not guns (ridiculous military spending and foreign aid)

BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 4y ago

The rebar is totally rusted. Last properly inspected maybe a decade ago. It takes time to get to that state of deterioration. Also a hazard to traffic below from chunks falling off.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

paulmd 4y ago

There is a bridge in Flint where the support pillars are held together by giant steel clamps because the concrete is crumbling underneath them. As you go northbound on I-75 and it makes that 90-degree left turn next to some kind of auto plant, there is a 3-level interchange and the support pillars have giant clamps on them. Every time I drive under it, it's a bit of a laugh, but who knows how safe it really actually is. I don't think that's an exception either. The state of infrastructure in this country is indeed terrible and people have been sounding the alarm since forever, and it just never gets fixed. But there is always money for new tanks that get sent straight to the boneyard, or fighting whatever extremely-important war we're into this year.

mfer 4y ago
The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is doing a terrible job. A recent audit found problems in the way they audit bids for work. I've spoken with people at road construction companies who have told me about changes that make the situation worse than a few years ago for the speed and cost of building roads. Policy things making it slower and more expensive that are baked in to the contracts. It's not just spending, which isn't efficient. Michigan has been (for decades) on the of the lowest spending states per capita on roads. This is across both Republicans and Democrats in the governor's seat.
- GravityisaHoax 4y ago
  No wonder their roads are so bad.
p1mrx 4y ago
These pillars?: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9825563,-83.7311805,3a,90y,351.93h,103.67t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHPOzGliaHWPkyza8aXvv4A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9825563,-83.7311805,3a,90y,3...
- paulmd 4y ago
  Yup! That next bridge 100 feet farther north looks even worse too, lol. Don't think you're supposed to be able to see the deck like that. From what I remember, that set of bridges has had problems with chunks coming off and hitting people as they drive on the highway. A chunk of concrete at 70mph is absolutely lethal.

TimPC 4y ago

The US had designed a system where large numbers of municipalities need more revenue then they actually produce. This has led to large swathes of the country having crumbling infrastructure as tax revenues are not adequate to maintenance. The solution is to maintain things like highways federally and move to a system of living that generates more funds. This likely means higher property tax rates in suburbs which is wildly unpopular and part of the reason all the infrastructure is crumbling. I know the specific piece of infrastructure isn’t in a suburb but failing cities have similar revenue problems.

zip1234 4y ago
That piece of infrastructure (the entire highway for that matter) only goes from downtown Detroit to the outer suburbs. It is there for commuters.
threads2 4y ago
"Build back better" hahahahhahaha

bmitc 4y ago

I always look at bridges and wonder who inspects all of our infrastructure and how often. Looking at the underneath picture of that bridge, it appears absolutely no one is inspecting these things. How bad are things getting when we can't even trust the bridges we walk and drive on?

s5fs 4y ago
I think there's a gap between an inspector turning in a report and the repairs being prioritized, funded, and executed. Out here in Oregon we had a tunnel collapse and kill the inspector (this was back in 1999). News reported that the tunnel was inspected twice the year before it collapsed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_L._Edwards_Tunnel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_L._Edwards_Tunnel

moneywoes 4y ago

isn't the MI govt under a huge deficit?

ryathal 4y ago
MI hasn't had any real budget issues for a decade. There was a brief period early in the pandemic when things were looking grim, but the feds flooded sates with money.
phkahler 4y ago
>> isn't the MI govt under a huge deficit? Not since education got funded by the lottery. They promised if we got a lottery the money would all go to education. Never mind that for every dollar that went to education from the lottery, there was a dollar reduction coming from the general fund which got diverted.... apparently not to infrastructure.

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