The Memorial Bridge carries about 68,000 vehicles per day—including buses—between Washington, D.C. and Virginia. Or, it did. That's going to
take a hit:
The National Park Service announced that a second lane of the 83-year-old bridge, which serves as a major traffic artery between Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial, will be closed for about six months. The first westbound lane closure began last week after inspectors found signs of corrosion.
Repairs are good. Delaying repairs until they're urgent and unnecessarily disruptive is not so good. There will also be a
weight restriction that requires rerouting buses away from the bridge. This highlights, in the nation's capital, a problem that's widespread across the country:
"We have to get serious about fixing and upgrading our roads, bridges, ports and other infrastructure. Until that happens, Virginia commuters will be stuck sitting in even more traffic — and crumbling and inefficient infrastructure will remain a serious drag on our economic growth," Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said in a statement.
There are
61,000 structurally deficient bridges in the United States, but transportation is on the long list of things congressional Republicans refuse to invest in. A two-month bill extending the Highway Trust Fund recently passed, but two months of funding makes it more than a little difficult to do long-term planning and investment.