Morning News
What is it about the American psyche that hates maintenance? Is it the reminder that we're still where we were? We haven't moved on to some fresh paradise, haven't built sparkling new cities in the middle of nowhere? Samuel L Schwartz, New York's chief engineer for four years twenty years ago writes an understandably impatient Op-Ed piece today. "Catch Me, I'm Falling," about how much money we would save if we took care of our bridges instead of waiting for them to crack. Not to mention lives.
Rather than lubricating the bearing plates that allow the Williamsburg Bridge to slide back and forth with changes in temperature and loads, we let the bearing plates jam, which cracked the concrete pedestal the span sat on. Twice a year we needed to stop traffic, jack the bridge up and slide the pedestal back in place. Instead of coating the bridge’s steel, we allowed it to become nearly paper-thin. This required the replacement of beams, which made the repairs eligible for federal funds, instead of merely a paint job with city money.
And what is a story about the whiff of corruption, coming from programs for studying abroad, doing on the front page?
Comments
My very old grandmother, who, when alive, was fond of pointing out that she was older than most of the buildings on the island of Manhattan, offered me a unique perspective.
She said, roughly, that this country was abuilding for years and those who built it took pride in it and kept things in working order. The Depression only heightened this sense of caring for what we had, even as we continued to build anew, taking pride in the craftsmanship of building as well as maintenance. After we came out on top in WWII, we started to become a "throw-away" society; too rich to bother about maintenance, since replacement by the new was our new God. With this mindset of inevitable obsolescence, we ceased building for the ages. Thus, we now have a country where very old structures are often in better shape than middle-aged structures, since they were built to last "forever". Now that we are becoming strapped for cash, we have become penny-wise and pound foolish, further exacerbating the problem. Here's hoping that this horrible bridge collapse is a wake-up call.
Posted by: LXIV | August 15, 2007 10:40 AM