The Bridge, the Mine, the Monster Truck

[Lissa]

We do not need more money for roads in Minnesota. As it is now, in summer you can hardly travel at all due to road construction. We do not have a failing infrastructure issue here, but maybe a misappropriation issue. I heard yesterday that the latest transportation bill (spending federal gas tax money) had earmarks (pork) for Northern Minnesota (James Oberstars District) for over $90 million in projects with most not related to roads at all. $90 million would have been enough to repair and strengthen many bridges...

You do realize that when Engineers build things, they plan for them to have a certain amount of life before they need to be replaced. My understanding is that bridge was at the end of it's life cycle as are numerous other bridges around the US (most were built during the Eisenhower administration). Now these items are starting to deteriorate rapidly because they have reached the end of their lifecycles.

Right now I am very worried that various power companies are trying to milk their 50+ year old reactors for more electricity. These plants need to be decommished and replaced, but the power companies are unwilling to outlay the costs to replace them. This is trouble because of damage to the molecular structure of the equipment in and around the core from radiation dosage over the years (a short time in an electron beam will cause teflon to turn into powder, so think was hundreds of thousands more length of exposure will do to steel and other materials in a reactor containment building).

We have aging infrastructure that needs to be replaced, not maintained, it's been maintained beyond it's lifecycle. Build something new and tear down the end of lifecycle equipment.