On the recordJune 5, 2014
in my home State of Delaware today we have a problem. Just this week the critical I-495 bridge over the Christina River in Wilmington--which carries more than 90,000 drivers each and every day, north and south on this critical artery on the east coast of the United States--was closed indefinitely. While engineers and workers were on an unrelated project in the area, they noticed that four of the key pillars holding up the bridge were alarmingly slanted, causing widespread concerns about the bridge's safety and prompt action to shut it down. Now as the Delaware Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration do everything they can to get to the bottom of this problem and to work to make this bridge safe again, tens of thousands of commuters are forced onto already crowded streets and highways, creating even worse traffic for everyone in our area, hurting our economy, and taking people away from where they need to be. It is, sadly, yet another example--one that hits particularly close to home for me--in a string of major infrastructure emergencies, some due to unforeseeable events, and some due to a long-term critical lack of investment that signifies why investment in our infrastructure is so important. Every day when Americans drive to work or drop off their kids at school, they make a simple bargain, an unconscious bargain with their government: They assume the roads will be safe to drive on.…
