The time is now to start making sure our infrastructures are safe

It was twenty years ago today that the Williamsburg Bridge was closed due to the discovery of a six foot long crack induced by severe corrosion.  The crack was in a column that supported a roadway and the two subway tracks above.  As chief engineer of the New York City Department of Transportation, I had little choice but to order the roadway closed and trains stopped.  After conferring with DOT Commissioner Ross Sandler and a score of city and state engineers, we concluded that the entire bridge should be shut and informed Mayor Koch of our conclusion. I'm glad we did- ultimately inspectors found more than 400 locations with corrosion severe enough to declare them "red flags"- meaning potential hazards.  Have we learned anything from that event?  Are our bridges safer today than then?   The closure of the Williamsburg Bridge on April 12, 1988 sent reverberations around the infrastructure world and became a national symbol of neglect.  This was the largest bridge shutdown in U.S. history with some 250,000 people on eight lanes of traffic, two subway tracks and two bike/walkways, having to reroute daily to other already crowded routes.  Media had a field day and 1988, being a presidential election year, infrastructure became a platform topic.  One candidate, Jesse Jackson, traipsed across the closed bridge highlighting its condition as indicative of our urban areas. Twenty years later, I am happy to report that New York City's bridges are in much better shape, but the nation's bridges are not.  In 1988, 63 of the 840 city bridges were in poor condition; another 300 were considered "fair" with most needing significant work.  Twenty bridges had been partially or fully closed including the north roadway of the Manhattan Bridge and all four tracks (we came just as close to disaster on the Manhattan Bridge but it was never publicized).  Post Williamsburg Bridge, Mayor Koch approved a sweeping package of reforms on how we inspected and maintained the spans.  Preventive maintenance, painting and cleaning became routine.  Every mayor since has kept this program intact.  More than $3 billion has been spent to rebuild the bridges with about half going to the flagship East River crossings.   The results are impressive.  The number of poor bridges has plummeted by 96% to just three today, and they are not only watched closely but are scheduled to be rehabilitated in the next two years.  Every lane, track and walkway on every East River bridge is now open (since October, 2007) for the first time in a half-century.  New York's bridges are the strongest they've been in a half-century, but not so with the nation's crossings. The Minnesota I-35 bridge collapse which killed 13 last August and the I-95 emergency closure in Philadelphia last month is emblematic of the problems our nation faces (disclosure:  I am leading one of the forensic engineering teams looking into the tragedy).  The I-35 bridge was one of about 72,500 bridges rated structurally deficient in 2007- 12% of the nation's total of about 600,000 bridges.  What worries me most about these numbers is the age of the bridges.  This may sound odd but I'm less concerned about a one hundred year old bridge than a 40 to 50 year old bridge.  Frankly, I wasn't surprised to learn that the I-35 bridge was just 40 years old. The I-95 bridge viaduct in Philadelphia closed last month due to corrosion and was just 35 years old. The bridges built in the first half of the twentieth century were built strong with lots of redundancy.  Post World War II bridges were made sleeker with little redundancy.  The Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges did not collapse, despite massive corrosion, because weight loads were transferred to other redundant beams.  While the verdict is still out on the cause of the I-35 collapse, one thing everybody agrees on is that there was little redundancy.   If a single beam failed the whole bridge may and did collapse. The Interstate Highway program built most of the bridge structures in this country starting a half-century ago. The "baby boomers" of bridges are turning retirement age now, but this is no social security, no Medicare and the money fuel from the gas tax is drying up.  Furthermore, our federal policies suffer from bi-polar disorder.  It is in our national interest to reduce reliance on gas consumption but we fund our transportation infrastructure from gas taxes.  More means less in this formula. This crisis must be faced head-on.  Increase the gas tax as recommended by the National Surface Transportation Commission (note: Bush appointees dissented). Create a national infrastructure bank similar to the European Investment Bank as proposed by Felix Rohatyn that could issue bonds to finance projects.  Encourage user pricing on highways and bridges nationally to pay for their maintenance. Set a GDP goal of 3% spending on infrastructure; today we spend about 2%; China spends 9%, India 5% and much of Europe 4-5%.  With war in Iraq hopefully winding down there should be more revenue for a war on our failing infrastructure.   The choice before us is a question of generational ethics.  Do we pay more now for our infrastructure or have our children face even higher costs and more risk? Samuel Schwartz is the president of Sam Schwartz Engineering, PLLC, New York, N.Y.