When Gov. Gina M. Raimondo and her administration started making the case for tolls to pay for repairs to Rhode Island bridges and roads, the arguments that ensued missed the point.
The issue should not be how to pay for the repairs but how many repairs should be done right now. As revealed in this week's cover story, "In Need of Support," temporary supports erected 15 years ago are now in need of replacement themselves. As the head of the R.I. Department of Transportation said, we have a crisis.
Rhode Island's bridges are the worst in the country, according to the federal Department of Transportation. How close we are to something akin to the 2007 collapse of the Interstate 35 bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis – in which 13 people died and 145 were injured – is unknown. But should we find out?
In fact, while nearly one-quarter of the state's bridges that are longer than 20 feet (the federal government does not look at bridges shorter than that) are structurally deficient, that is, in need of replacement soon, roughly one-third more are functionally obsolete, that is, not built to current standards and in need of replacement in a longer time frame.
Today's economy still needs highly functional physical infrastructure to be competitive, and we need jobs, so what is the holdup?
The General Assembly should make plans to come back in the fall and tackle this issue so that when the construction season begins in 2016, orange barrels start popping up around the state, and bridges no longer require drivers to cross themselves before they cross them. •