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Gov. Scott Walker vowed that the Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge, which carries Interstate 43 over the Fox River on the north side of Green Bay, will be reopened. But officials Wednesday acknowledged that they have no idea how long it will take to diagnose and fix the problem.

“It could be months. It could be a year,” Kim Rudat, the spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s northeast region. The closure, he said, will likely last “for quite some time.”

The dip is 400 feet long and a little more than 1½ feet deep, DOT said. It crosses all four lanes of the interstate. http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20130925/GPG0101/309250360
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H84dg1hKQo2_9TVffAbcNJbVSNTsMdUcl8pA

This is yet again evidence of how putting off maintenance costs more than any money saved, as the economic impact ripples outward. The governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, delayed critical maintenance of the bridge ( http://www.roadsbridges.com/dot-wisconsin-slows-road-construction-acti
vity), even ignoring when cracks were discovered in 2012, and used money for bridge maintenance to instead pay back mutual funds and bankers ( http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2013/sep/01/kathleen-vi
nehout/gov-scott-walker-responsible-record-debt-payments-/). And it is not as if this was a surprise, as reports explaining the need for $64 billion in critical maintenance, back in 2004. "THE $64 BILLION QUESTION
WISCONSIN’S LOOMING INFRASTRUCTURE COSTS", http://www.wpri.org/WIInterest/Vol13no2/Mil13.2.pdf)

Beginning in 2004, an array of right-wing think tanks fought for what they called the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, which would in part hurt Wisconsin’s ability to maintain its infrastructure. While this initiative was defeated in 2004 and 2006, it is now the law of the land. Scott Walker has codified the right for Wisconsin citizens to potentially die on unsafe roads, to undermine the state economy, in general giving the citizens of the state a giant middle finger.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, the torrential rains resulted in flooding which was made worse by multiple dams which have failed, with dozens more still at risk.

Republicans have blocked bills to deal with repair or maintenance on infrastructure throughout the state ( http://www.desdemonadespair.net//feeds/posts/https://www.roadsbridges.
com/colorado-governor-blames-republicans-legislative-failure). These efforts, done in the name of "fiscal conservatism", do not save money at all, and wind up costing far more than the money saved. Several bridges and dams had already failed before the flooding ( http://www.coloradodot.info/news/2012-news-releases/08-2012/highway-67
-closed-due-to-bridge-failure), which makes the added stress of the current conditions too much to bear. It is reported that over 100 bridges are unsafe ( http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18684192?source=bb) while the number of dams nearing failure continues to climb ( http://www.damsafety.org/map/state.aspx?s=6), with over 300 dams listed as at-risk, and two dozen as of extreme risk.

The department tasked with managing the repairs for dams in the state is woefully understaffed and underbudgeted, and the state Republicans refuse to fund any repairs ( http://www.denverpost.com/ci_17314534) in their push for “small government.” This flies in the face of the reality of aging dam infrastructure across the United States, with 85% to be over a half-century old by 2020. ( http://www.denverpost.com/environment/ci_24080336/dams-break-at-rocky-
mountain-arsenal-and-larimer)

How many more roads, bridges, dams, etc., have to fail across this nation before we as a society say “enough”? How many lives is enough? These fiscally irresponsible people care nothing about the people they are elected to represent, that much is obvious.

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...the core of the problem comes back to the federal gas tax, which hasn't been raised since 1993 and loses purchasing power to inflation every day. These two lost decades of road taxes are the reason the Highway Trust Fund, which is supposed to cover road costs, is expected to fail in 2015.

European countries take in far more road revenue than they spend. As a result, the road system in Europe can be (and is) used to subsidize other public programs. That's the opposite case of the United States. http://m.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/09/these-2-charts-prove-am
erican-drivers-dont-pay-enough-roads/6917/]

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