QOTD: What Piece of Local Infrastructure Worries You?

by Tim Healey

Published: June 12th, 2023

qotd what piece of local infrastructure worries you

We've all heard about a section of I-95 collapsing due to a fire in Philadelphia this weekend.

Now I am thinking about infrastructure.

I haven't looked too deeply into the Philadelphia situation to see if that stretch of road had previously been the subject of concern about infrastructure. That said, I bet most of us have concerns about a piece of infrastructure in our local area.

If you do, go ahead and talk about it below. I am curious as to what bridge/tunnel/road near you have you concerned about a possible future incident.

Sound off below.

[Image: Lightspring/Shutterstock.com]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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10 of 103 comments

Arthur Dailey on Jun 13, 2023

The recent fire may have been something of a 'one off' but in occupational health and safety were are taught to learn from these and find ways to reduce either their happening again or their damage.

I would recommend:
1) eliminating the use of road salt which corrodes not only vehicles but also the rebar/etc used in construction (see the collapse of the mall in Elliot Lake, Ontario).
2) reducing the use of private, for profit companies building infrastructure and return to government owned/controlled entities. Yes there will be bureaucratic foul ups and inefficiencies. However the profits won't be funneled overseas or skimmed by carpetbagging 'executives'.
3) find a way to resurrect some Roman engineers. Their roads seem to have been able to survive for centuries. Ours have to be repaved/rebuilt every decade (or sooner).

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- See 4 previous
- 95_SC on Jun 13, 2023
  
  Go do 50 through Pompeii. Different standards. And you'll need to start jailing politicians who do shady things if you want that to work or it'll just be someone else skimming the money. As it is we reelect the shady politicians, not jail them. I'll agree on salt. That was the best thing about being WAAAAY up in upstate NY. It was typically to cold for salt.
  
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- IH_Fever on Jun 13, 2023
  
  As much as some like to bemoan private entities making profits, they are often the ones who come up with much better end products. Making the government do all the roads themselves will just lead to a crappier result and even more money going into politicians pockets instead of private citizens.
  
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- Arthur Dailey on Jun 13, 2023
  
  @IH: if the roadwork is performed solely by government agencies/workers then the opportunity for 'political graft' is much lower than if private for profit organizations 'bid' on the work. As for 'crappier' results' we have a large amount of evidence demonstrating that in regards to 'public works' government agencies perform better than private agencies. Be it providing fire, police, ambulance, public transit, healthcare, water, sewage, electricity and road maintenance/toll road operation, in Ontario at least the public services have all outperformed the private services in regards to either or both cost efficiency and/or reliability/access.
  
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- IH_Fever on Jun 13, 2023
  
  We'll have to agree to disagree. Every single infrastructure project I've seen on the public side has taken longer, cost more, and did not work as well as what our private developers produce. Your idea of having only government employees build roads may limit the kick backs from private companies trying to get work, but have you seen government employees in the US? Go to the DMV if you want an example of efficiency and quality LOL
  
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- Kcflyer on Jun 13, 2023
  
  Plus 1000 on banning road salt. Sand the intersections and let people learn how to drive. As for my friends in Pittsburgh, well, good luck on those hills without a salt alternative.
  
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- 95_SC on Jun 13, 2023
  
  Yes. I mean look at how efficient and budget friendly our last 2 wars were. Yay Government!
  
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Spookiness on Jun 13, 2023

Electric power. For the record, Dominion Virginia Power is my provider. Not reliable at all, they usually blame trees.

2 Reply
- BEPLA on Jun 13, 2023
  
  Let's not mention the cable/internet providers who can't be bothered to bring service into areas where people live, and also can't bother to maintain reliable service in good weather.
  
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El scotto on Jun 13, 2023

I used to build bridges and own a charcoal BBQ grill. The I-95 bridge in Philly got turned into a BBQ. There are some egos on here that would need a bridge-sized BBQ.:)

I used to repave roads. It's a union job and no we didn't have Jaguar salesmen bothering us on our lunch. For all the herp, derp every time I go by a job site there's someone standing around doing nothing, Why Matt Posky is both well qualified and would kill for that job! No Matt and everyone else on the job site was hired to do a specific job. While you're setting in your air-conditioned vehicle with the radio on and thinking Man a union job with nothing to do; that worker is pausing before they go do their next task.

There is the state Senator's college-attending sorority-girl daughter. All she has to do all day is flip the sign from STOP to Narrow Road. She's union too! Rarely refuses a free after-work beer.

1 Reply
ToolGuy on Jun 18, 2023

"What Piece of Local Infrastructure Worries You?"
• TTAC's website coding?

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