CNN just reported infrastructure at risk.

[katsy]

The country's Infrastructure is melting and buckling from high temperatures.

I'd like to see the "I built this by my lonesome" gang step up to the plate and pay for the infrastructure repair that services their business.

I doubt they pay enough in taxes to cover even a small fraction of the cost of what we, collectively built.

It really does take a village to make good things happen.

No link as it was a CNN segment.

[deaniac21]

1. Probably no one saw it.

[MadHound]

2. Major highways in Missour started buckling two weeks ago,

Two weeks later, they're really starting to get dangerous.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Local Water Dept. heavy Cat on our asphalt street left damage

half the street is now cracked and wavy, from where the machine drove down to the problem water line and then sat for a day at one house.
Usually road machines do not leave much marks of their passing.

[maddezmom]

3. I saw it and here's an article from the NYT: Weather Extremes Leave Parts of U.S. Grid Buckling

Weather Extremes Leave Parts of U.S. Grid Buckling


WASHINGTON — From highways in Texas to nuclear power plants in Illinois, the concrete, steel and sophisticated engineering that undergird the nation’s infrastructure are being taxed to worrisome degrees by heat, drought and vicious storms.

On a single day this month here, a US Airways regional jet became stuck in asphalt that had softened in 100-degree temperatures, and a subway train derailed after the heat stretched the track so far that it kinked — inserting a sharp angle into a stretch that was supposed to be straight. In East Texas, heat and drought have had a startling effect on the clay-rich soils under highways, which “just shrink like crazy,” leading to “horrendous cracking,” said Tom Scullion, senior research engineer with the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. In Northeastern and Midwestern states, he said, unusually high heat is causing highway sections to expand beyond their design limits, press against each other and “pop up,” creating jarring and even hazardous speed bumps.

Excessive warmth and dryness are threatening other parts of the grid as well. In the Chicago area, a twin-unit nuclear plant had to get special permission to keep operating this month because the pond it uses for cooling water rose to 102 degrees; its license to operate allows it to go only to 100. According to the Midwest Independent System Operator, the grid operator for the region, a different power plant had had to shut because the body of water from which it draws its cooling water had dropped so low that the intake pipe became high and dry; another had to cut back generation because cooling water was too warm.

The frequency of extreme weather is up over the past few years, and people who deal with infrastructure expect that to continue. Leading climate models suggest that weather-sensitive parts of the infrastructure will be seeing many more extreme episodes, along with shifts in weather patterns and rising maximum (and minimum) temperatures.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/us/rise-in-weather-extremes-threatens-infrastructure.html

[katsy]

4. Thank you for the article.

Off to read it.

[Grey]

15. Some very interesting remarks at the end of the article. nt

[Uncle Joe]

25. I agree, it seems the federal government is dragging ass in regards to climate change.

Even when state and local officials know what they want to do, they say they do not always get the cooperation they would like from the federal government. Many agencies have officially expressed a commitment to plan for climate change, but sometimes the results on the ground can be frustrating, said Ms. Minter of Vermont. For instance, she said, Vermont officials want to replace the old culverts with bigger ones. “We think it’s an opportunity to build back in a more robust way,” she said. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency wants to reuse the old culverts that washed out, or replace them with similar ones, she said.

Ms. Arroyo of Georgetown said the federal government must do more. “They are not acknowledging that the future will look different from the past,” she said, “and so we keep putting people and infrastructure in harm’s way.”

[LongTomH]

21. Most of our infrastructure was built when top marginal tax rates were 70-91%

Actually 91% under Eisenhower when he built the Federal Highway System to 70% under JFK and LBJ, when we went to the moon. Sadly, things are going to have to fall apart even more before we can get a Congress willing to raise the top marginal rates, so buckle down for some really hard times.

[nc4bo]

28. Really good article with some really dumb people making really dumb comments below it.

If it isn't climate change, it'd be lack of maintenance due to dozens of reasons.

Can't stand deniers, whiners and the anti-government and anti-union asshat comments they make .

[gopiscrap]

5. Gee Wiz how about that

Last edited Thu Jul 26, 2012, 12:45 PM - Edit history (1)

once again the fucking Tea Party ass hats might get what they wish for: a government that can't help them!

[katsy]

13. Exactly. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

6. There was a 48" water main that broke

in South Philadelphia earlier this week. They had to evacuate people in boats. I think I saw estimates that it was either built around 1896 or 1918 (the last time a big main was done in the area).

http://articles.philly.com/2012-07-25/news/32828814_1_21st-and-bainbridge-streets-water-infrastructure-water-system

And after 2 of the worst winters on record (2010 & 2011) and the hottest and wettest on record (2011), and this year approaching another hottest on record, the stuff can't take it anymore.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Wait, global climate change is not

Real...so the roadway (the most obvious) cannot be buckling..damn lib'rul press...

[Botany]

11. and the RR tracks in illinois did not buckle in the heat and a train did not derail

I was at a party last night and had a man tell that he did no believe that man made climate change is real.

After I asked him if he thought man made green house gases were causing global temps to rise and he
said no i just turned and walked away from him. The science and data are there for all to see and
the denial of these facts are like a religion to some people.

[HughBeaumont]

8. Gonna party like it's 1899!! YEAH!!

Tea-stonia is finally exploding . . . right along with Reagan's vision . . . fitting . . .

[Skittles]

9. well NO SHIT

but the money needs to go to AFGHANISTAN so STFU!

[katsy]

12. LOL. okay then.

[Plucketeer]

24. Yeah, Iraq and Afghanistan get all sorts of new infrastructure

- built to handle high temps no less. Here, they can't afford to turn the school's AC on when school starts!

[Nevernose]

10. Good article

And the responses, while mostly positive, also provide a fascinating glimpse into the minds of global warming deniers.

[lastlib]

30. Global warming deniers have minds??? Wow!

Do they just save 'em for special occasions, or what?

[Baitball Blogger]

16. Sounds like someone is paving the way for a public works project.

[deutsey]

19. If only...(n/t)

[Zoeisright]

17. DUH!!

This has been the case for years. About fucking time the MSM paid some attention to it.

[Dustlawyer]

18. They all cheat heavily on their taxes. If we could fund the IRS (sounds bad even to me) we

could collect the taxes at the current rate and have enough. We just have to have Government fund the starving regulatory agencies (and watch that they are not continually co-opted by the moneyied interests), and we would all be better off. But, it all starts with campaign finance reform. Until that happens, forget about it!

[bobthedrummer]

20. The end of the consumer empire of the most powerful military power in human history is here n/t

[NickB79]

22. I realized that as I looked at the ruins of the Minneapolis bridge

From the U of MN campus when it collapsed back in 2007.

This country is held together with duct tape and prayers at this point. Large portions of our electrical grid are decades outdated, and require constant maintanence to prevent massive blackouts. If anyone really reported on how close to collapse large portions of our society are to collapse, they're be widespread panic.

We need a trillions of dollars to update our infrastructure. Unfortunately, some dumbass blew all the money we had on a couple of pointless wars.

[Ineeda]

23. The Crumbling of America

a History Channel documentary first aired in 2009, I believe. Damns, levees, bridges, tunnels, electric grid, water and sewer systems, roads and highways, etc. -- it's all been neglected and has deteriorated to critical and dangerous levels.

[Orrex]

27. Honestly, I thought we'd gotten rid of our infrastructure back in 2006 or so

This is all news to me.

[greiner3]

29. Durn Liberal Media;

Causing interruptions in our daily lives.

[AngryOldDem]

31. Well, weather aside, this is what happens when you don't want to pay taxes.

Bridges fall, roads crumble.

But keep on bitchin' that taxes are too high.

[OmahaBlueDog]

32. K & R