Jay Kim: “I rise in support of S. 1789. This bill is vitally important to California. Passage would permit the expenditure of…”

“I rise in support of S. 1789. This bill is vitally important to California. Passage would permit the expenditure of Federal-aid highway funds for the seismic retrofitting of bridges. Under current law, States cannot use Federal funds for seismic retrofitting--only for structurally deficient or functionally obsolete bridges. The recent Northridge earthquake demonstrated that bridges that have not been retrofitted will, in fact, collapse. As an engineer, I can tell you that unretrofitted bridges are structurally deficient. Of the 10 bridges that collapsed, 9 had already been determined to be in need of seismic retrofitting. The California Department of Transportation [CALTRANS] has developed a good seismic retrofit program that has investigated and prioritized over 24,000 bridges. But because of budgetary problems, California has been forced to spread the seismic retrofit program over a period of 3 years. While CALTRANS estimates that the program will cost over $1.5 billion, it is far less than we are going to spend to restore the damaged highways. Governor Wilson has estimated the damage at $15 to $30 billion. The damage to the transportation system was in excess of $2 billion. But I am here to tell you that this disaster could have been much worse; 106 other bridges in the Los Angeles area are also in need of seismic retrofitting.”