How We Can Save Our Roads

Last March, a bridge inspector discovered a crack six feet long in a concrete pillar supporting Interstate 95 on its elevated course through Philadelphia. Mindful of the Minneapolis bridge collapse that killed 13 people in August 2007, alarmed state engineers promptly shut down two miles of the nation


Similar situations are occurring all over America. A section of Interstate 25 in Denver collapsed last year into a sinkhole 40 feet wide and 16 feet deep, creating a 10-mile standstill. A few months later, Chesapeake, Va., officials had to close the Jordan Bridge, a busy 80-year-old span over the Elizabeth River, when its condition hit zero on a 100-point scale.

President Obama and Congress have made public works central to their $787 billion economic-stimulus plan. Over the next 18 months, the government is expected to spend nearly $30 billion jump-starting an overhaul of the nation