51–60 of 180 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Most people would accept that level of risk" I wouldn't and I definitely wouldn't if I had other people in the car.
It's likely that you live in an area with similar mortality risk from air pollution. Is there a reason not to move to an area with lower risk from air pollution?
:)
Same stuff for the Genoa, Italy bridge (Ponte Morandi). Everyone running on that would feel vibrations and "repairs" were just lipstick on a ugly face, until it finally collapsed, with 43 dead. Surprisingly, or not so, no one was found guilty, not even the inspectors that didn't report the ongoing damages, just because "it would be too costly to rebuild it, and profits of the highway company (1) in charge of it would…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A well-maintained (and well designed, but there's no reason to think the design was at fault here) bridge shouldn't collapse. Ever. "Appropriate maintenance" in this case would have been to periodically unclog the drains so the water can run off in a controlled fashion and not pool and corrode the supports. How expensive can that be? Instead, the bridge collapses (and they were lucky that no one was killed in the col…
I don’t know how things work in other countries, but in the US new construction is almost always funded with a big chunk of federal dollars (deficit spending), but maintenance has to be done out of your own state or local budget. The incentives are all fucked up.
Case in point right now at the France-Italy border : they're building the longest rail tunnel in the world under the Alps for tens of billions. There is a tunnel already (Frejus tunnel), which is used at 25% of its capacity, but public money is raining on this unstoppable, useless project.
On the other end, all over Europe and particularly in France and Italy, rail and road infrastructures are in a state of disrepair. Wouldn't this money be better used repairing thousands of bridges, tunnels, etc? Sure, but no politician could campaign on "I've got billions spent in our region!". No multinational civil engineering and construction company such as Eiffage or Bouygues would get big money. All the big boys are in favour of the project, and all the small guys simply don't count.
This is all completely fucked-up, frankly. It's a general failure of democracy and a global corporate takeover.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As the video states this was flagged by inspections 14 times over 7 years or so. There's even inspection reports of one of the cross supports rusted through and disconnected, a cable taking some of the strain. At the very least the bridge should have just been closed, as unsafe.
> As the video states this was flagged by inspections 14 times over 7 years or so. And the article starts by stating that the collapse was ‘without warning.’
When we do design, we're generally designing things so that if it fails it does so in a way that doesn't suddenly all collapse at once, but first deforms for a while so people can get away.
Many western countries in general do not care for routine maintenance of infrastructure / buildings / water lines / busses. Norway has to be among the worst. It is not fun and glorious for a political administration to set aside $$$$ every year that will just go to people doing boring work that the voters will not be impressed with. You dont see politicians "Under my administration we painted XX buildings, we did nee…
Apparently, nobody pays for it either way. It's astounding to me how little tax money goes into paying for infrastructure.
In 2023 the US federal government spent $44.8 billion on infrastructure and transferred $81.5 billion to the states. That's $126.3 billion out of a $6.1 trillion budget. ('Only' $4.4 trillion in revenue though.)
That's 2% of the budget.
Many western countries in general do not care for routine maintenance of infrastructure / buildings / water lines / busses. Norway has to be among the worst. It is not fun and glorious for a political administration to set aside $$$$ every year that will just go to people doing boring work that the voters will not be impressed with. You dont see politicians "Under my administration we painted XX buildings, we did nee…
If you knew all this, would you have avoided driving over the bridge? Would you have wanted the local government to close it indefinitely awaiting repairs? Let's say it would collapse with 100% certainty randomly in the next three years, and you're in the danger area for 2 minutes, with a 20% chance of fatality (in fact, nobody died). That's still around a one in 4 million chance any given trip kills you, about the s…
A well-maintained (and well designed, but there's no reason to think the design was at fault here) bridge shouldn't collapse. Ever. "Appropriate maintenance" in this case would have been to periodically unclog the drains so the water can run off in a controlled fashion and not pool and corrode the supports. How expensive can that be? Instead, the bridge collapses (and they were lucky that no one was killed in the col…
I just spent the last 4 years living in a series of countries that Americans would call ‘3rd world’. Places where proper funding of infrastructure, let alone inspections are so far below US metrics of adequate, they’d legitimately scare you. Bridges and overpasses that exist until they break and the people die. People call out to God for justice! But all that infra is then rebuilt the same way if it’s rebuilt / when…
And then there's a political commentator who calls the United States (and the United Kingdom) a Fourth World -- and that's not a positive thing. https://archive.is/UIr49
How America Collapsed and Became a Fourth World Country
How America (and Britain) Became Failed States
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A well-maintained (and well designed, but there's no reason to think the design was at fault here) bridge shouldn't collapse. Ever. "Appropriate maintenance" in this case would have been to periodically unclog the drains so the water can run off in a controlled fashion and not pool and corrode the supports. How expensive can that be? Instead, the bridge collapses (and they were lucky that no one was killed in the col…
I don’t know how things work in other countries, but in the US new construction is almost always funded with a big chunk of federal dollars (deficit spending), but maintenance has to be done out of your own state or local budget. The incentives are all fucked up.
In recent years there have been plans to "boulevardize" some major arterials within city boundaries, meaning the city takes over responsibility of the road segment and turns it into a street with lower speed limits, multimodal access, and so on. The intention is, of course, to facilitate urban development in the corridor.
If you knew all this, would you have avoided driving over the bridge? Would you have wanted the local government to close it indefinitely awaiting repairs? Let's say it would collapse with 100% certainty randomly in the next three years, and you're in the danger area for 2 minutes, with a 20% chance of fatality (in fact, nobody died). That's still around a one in 4 million chance any given trip kills you, about the s…
The average American driver includes drunk and tired drivers who play on their phone while speeding. The numbers for sober people driving reasonably e.g. on their commute are probably better.