[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 130 (Friday, August 1, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1667]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF I-35W BRIDGE COLLAPSE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES L. OBERSTAR

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 31, 2008

  Mr. OBERSTAR. Madam Speaker, I rise lo mark the first anniversary of 
a tragedy in my home state, a tragedy that touches all Americans. At 
6:05 p.m. on August 1, 2007, the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis, 
Minnesota, collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people. The 
eight-lane, steel truss bridge span, which was constructed in 1967, 
carried approximately 140,000 vehicles daily.
  Within just six minutes of the bridge collapse, emergency personnel 
responded to the scene, risking their own health and safety to rescue 
victims and to provide care to the injured. Within three hours, first 
responders were able to complete the rescue of victims stranded on the 
bridge. The swift and heroic actions of the first responders that day 
saved countless lives and were critical in minimizing the potential for 
more loss of life.
  I received the tragic news of the bridge collapse while standing on 
the floor of this House, managing the Water Resources Development Act. 
The Transportation Committee staff and I immediately began developing 
legislation to help the City of Minneapolis, the Twin Cities 
metropolitan area, and the State of Minnesota cope with the loss of a 
major transportation artery, and rebuild after the terrible tragedy. 
The Committee approved my legislation the following morning, and the 
House passed H.R. 3311, authorizing up to $250 million to carry our 
emergency repairs and reconstruction of the bridge and $5 million for 
transit needs less than 48 hours after the tragedy occurred. To date, a 
total of $371 million in Federal funding has been provided for the 
cleanup and reconstruction of this crossing.
  Construction of a replacement bridge on I-35W has moved swiftly. By 
late October, 2007, major work to replace the bridge had begun, and by 
mid-April of this year construction crews had reached the half-way 
point in the project. This week, crews will finish pouring the concrete 
on the final span of the new bridge as construction continues ahead of 
schedule. The new bridge is expected to open on December 24, 2008.
  This tragedy demonstrates the need to make a commitment to invest in 
the maintenance, reconstruction, and replacement of our nation's 
surface transportation infrastructure. Many bridges, highways, 
overpasses, and transit facilities are being stretched to the limit of 
their design life and beyond.
  Of the 599,766 bridges in the National Bridge Inventory, 25.4 percent 
of America's bridges--more than one in four--are structurally deficient 
or functionally obsolete. There are 72,524 structurally deficient 
bridges and 79,792 functionally obsolete bridges. According to the 
Department of Transportation (``DOT''), more than $65 billion could be 
invested immediately in a cost-beneficial way to replace or otherwise 
address existing bridge deficiencies.
  Of particular concern is the condition of bridges on the 162,000-mile 
National Highway System (``NHS''), which consists of the 46,747-mile 
Interstate System, the Strategic Highway Network for military 
mobilizations, and other major highways. While the NHS makes up only 
4.1 percent of total U.S. mileage, it carries 45 percent of vehicle 
miles traveled. NHS bridges carry more than 70 percent of all traffic 
on bridges. Of the 116,172 bridges on the NHS, including more than 
55,000 Interstate System bridges, 6,175 are structurally deficient. 
Almost one-half of these structurally deficient NHS bridges are bridges 
on the Interstate Highway System, which has 2,830 structurally 
deficient bridges. The DOT estimates the current NHS bridge investment 
backlog to be $32.1 billion, including $19.1 billion for the Interstate 
Highway System bridge backlog.
  While bridges are a key component of our nation's infrastructure 
network, these figures highlight the failure to make necessary 
investments in our nation's transportation infrastructure network. 
America's intermodal transportation network serves as the backbone of 
our economic security and competitiveness, as well as our quality of 
life. It facilitates the safe movement of people and goods, linking our 
communities to each other and to the world. The U.S. transportation 
system has served as a model for developing an interconnected network. 
However, in recent years we have been losing ground.
  Many aspects of America's transportation network are operating at or 
near capacity. The Texas Transportation Institute, in its 2007 Urban 
Mobility Report, reported that in 2005 wasted fuel and time translated 
into a total congestion cost--or tax on the nation's drivers--of $78.2 
billion--$5.1 billion higher than a year earlier. This congestion 
translates into millions of vehicles stuck idling on American roadways. 
This undermines our nation's economic competitiveness, productivity and 
quality of life. It has also contributed to a significant increase in 
transportation's share of U.S. green-house gas emissions.
  Advances in logistics have turned our nation's roadways into real-
time warehouses thanks to ``just in time delivery'', which builds 
greater efficiencies and cost savings into the system by allowing 
businesses to order parts and inventory stock in smaller batches. 
However, the increasing congestion on the nation's roadways threatens 
these efficiency gains. Truck transportation has increased its share of 
overall logistics costs for U.S. companies, reaching 77 percent of 
total logistics costs in 2007. Total logistics costs today account for 
10.1 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2007, up from 9.9 
percent in 2006.
  With our nation's population expected to grow from approximately 300 
million today to 420 million by 2050 and freight volumes expected to 
grow by 70 percent by 2020, future demands on our intermodal surface 
transportation network will require a bold new vision and approach to 
addressing the challenges of the 21st century, and a commitment to 
identifying the resources to carry out this new vision. Yet we continue 
to underinvest in infrastructure.
  Earlier this year a Congressionally-chartered Commission--the 
National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission--
identified a significant surface transportation investment gap, and 
called for an annual investment level of between $225 and $340 
billion--by all levels of government and the private sector--over the 
next 50 years to upgrade all modes of surface transportation (highways, 
bridges, public transit, freight rail and intercity passenger rail) to 
a state of good repair. The current annual capital investment from all 
sources in all modes of transportation is $85 billion.
  We are now on the threshold of a transformational moment in the 
evolution of our surface transportation program. Next year, as Congress 
develops the next surface transportation legislation, we will face 
challenges in determining what the shape of our system should be and 
how best to finance it. This new era of transportation will challenge 
our imagination, our political will, and the tendency of all user 
groups to hunker down, think and act in insular ways--in self-interest, 
rather than in the common interest. We must begin now to rise above our 
differences, to find common ground in policies--and funding--that will 
best serve the nation's passenger and freight mobility and access needs 
in the 21st century.
  Infrastructure is easily overlooked. It is always there, always 
functioning, always serving our needs. When infrastructure fails, 
though, as it did that day one year ago in Minneapolis, we are suddenly 
awakened to the fragility of our national transportation system. The 
collapse of this facility is a tragedy that policymakers and leaders 
around the country, and Americans in general, will not soon forget. The 
traveling public is looking to their government for solutions to ensure 
that such a tragedy will not happen again. We must take the lessons of 
the I-35W Bridge, and use them to create an accountable and reliable 
surface transportation program that guards the safety of all users.
  It will be up to Congress and the next Administration to summon the 
political will necessary to create a surface transportation system that 
will serve as an engine of sustainable growth, underpinning and 
enhancing the greatest economy in the world, and ensuring the safety of 
American drivers.
  We cannot walk away from this responsibility, and we can no longer 
afford to ignore it.




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