We have structurally deficient priorities

More than 100 days ago, the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13, injuring 145 and closing a vital transportation artery in the Twin Cities.

The disaster made plain what we in the logistics profession have known for the past eight years:

America under both federal and state government has permitted, even encouraged, a scandalous neglect of our transportation infrastructure which is contributing to our concurrent economic decline.

At least, we surmised, this tragedy would spur America to commit to rebuilding and renewing this infrastructure which is so vital to our economic well being.

Sadly, the usual happy talk we get from governmental leaders again amounted to NATO - "No Action, Talk Only."

The Associated Press reports little progress in repairing and rehabilitating each state's 20 most heavily traveled and structurally deficient bridges.

Just 10 percent of 1,020 major bridges had their structural defects fixed. Two thirds of the most heavily traveled problem bridges have had zero major work down besides regular maintenance.

President Bush has vowed to veto $1 billion of a proposed federal increase in infrastructure repair.

In the more than 400 days since that structurally deficient bridge dumped doomed commuters into a watery grave, Bush has squandered $117 billion, not to secure and build up, but to prosecute endlessly a made up, senseless war.

In subscribing to the conservative theory that government is the problem, not the solution, he spends every day proving precisely that.

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn