Impact of I-85 bridge collapse
If you’re not from around here, and don’t live or travel through Atlanta, then you may not realize what a big deal the partial collapse of I-85 is. A portion of the interstate’s northbound bridge, just south of Georgia Highway 400, caught fire and collapsed March 30 in Northeast Atlanta.
Three people have been arrested, including an alleged crack user accused of starting the fire.
Atlanta traffic is legendarily maddening when the roads are intact and the sun is out and the winds calm. You can imagine what a collapsed bridge on one of the metro area’s major arteries might do. Traffic there will be snarled even more than usual for months. Commerce will be slowed and workers detoured.
The Goodwill Store and Career Center near the collapse, for example, has been closed indefinitely.
You have to wonder how one alleged down-and-out addict with no apparent address can bring down an interstate highway. And, indeed, questions are being asked about who’s responsible for the irresponsible storage of the combustible materials that appear to have turned this into an interstate inferno — which include “PVC and high-density polyethylene pipe, which cover fiber optic cable,” according to one report.
But the remarkable conflagration and catastrophic damage to a sturdily built interstate bridge reveals a number of this society’s vulnerabilities.
We still have dual and often overlapping homelessness and drug addiction crises. We have an awful lot of folks with nothing constructive to do. We apparently have unprotected, poorly thought-out stores of combustible materials lying around.
And we have an overburdened infrastructure that leaves us highly exposed to crippling obstruction when it’s taken away. We need to do a certain number of things. First, we need to punish those responsible for the I-85 disaster — and not just the one who struck the match.
Next, our major cities need to put their best minds to work on a 21st century comprehensive transportation strategy that helps decongest the Atlantas out there. Both the public and private sectors need to be involved, in such matters as increased use of telecommuting, planned communities, intermodal transportation and more.
Are we maximizing opportunities for mass transportation and home-based work? Is more light rail needed?
We also need Washington to weigh in — with an infrastructure improvement bill that takes these and other factors into consideration.
This crisis — particularly given its apparently modest beginnings — needs to be a wake-up call to leaders at every level.
After the securing of our border, this could very well be our biggest domestic challenge. Mike Lester, Washington Post Writers Group