New Washington State BEV registration fee

I-976 passed, but I'm still catching up from a travel absence, so haven't caught up on all the election results yet --

That bridge collapse happened May 23, 2013, hardly "20 years ago". It was an old fracture-critical design, functionally obsolete, built before the Interstate Highway System was started. And that collapse was just a single span of a 4-span bridge. The other 3 spans are still in use!

Overheight vehicle strikes are common. The oversize (but not overweight) load had the proper permit to cross this bridge in the left lane only, not in the lower-clearance right lane, but it stayed right because of other traffic. Any bridge that can be collapsed by a single rather ordinary truck load striking a single overhead beam, shouldn't still be a critical link in our Interstate Highway system. Especially on such a high traffic route. It demands replacement with a more modern design before the next similar 'accident'. A type that keeps happening. But the needed funding isn't available.

The surviving spans have been upgraded for uniform clearance across all lane positions, but the other problems remain. Plenty of other infrastructure is also similarly obsolete, and at high risk of equally paralyzing incidents.

 

U.S. infrastructure has a nice D+ rating from the American Society of Civil Engineers:



And it will continue to be poorly maintained due to people only willing to pay $30 for car tab fees.