The true price of the last few decades...

You may have heard it, a bridge fell down north of Seattle.  Nobody was killed but it's going to make it entertaining to get to and from Vancouver for a while...  train you say?  Off you go...  Amtrack is that way, be prepared to gawp at the length of time a 100 mile journey can take.

Already various reports are trying to blame an overloaded truck for hitting the bridge which led to the collapse.  Sorry, no dice, a bridge, especially one on an Interstate Highway shouldn't be able to fail from a truck damaging part of the structure.  You might need to close the bridge and repair/replace, but a section shouldn't undergo catastrophic collapse.

Soon afterwards, a friend of mine who is a Civil Engineer working in the North West posted this:

There are always those that oppose infrastructure spending claiming we don't need to replace aging structures that are "just fine." Well, here's an example of what happens when structures beyond their life span are kept in service with nomeaningful maintenance...it's a problem people...the majority of the Interstate system was built in the 1950's with a 50 year service life...guess what...we're 10 years past that...as much as you may not like cars or highways, this a major problem in the US that needs attention and tax dollars.

And this is the heart of the issue.  The US road infrastructure is tired and old and in some cases beyond being patched up.  That's the actually appalling legacy left by the economic policies which have held sway for a generation.  Everything focused on short term costs with no eye on the actual long term implications.