Minnesota is crumbling

If you read just the headlines, it would appear that everything in Minnesota is in danger of falling to the ground (or water) below. Very few could have actually missed the national headlines from last August when the Interstate 35-w bridge (all 8 lanes of it) in Minneapolis, MN spanning the Mississippi River collapsed during the afternoon rush hour.

It seemed to be an example of how poor of condition our highways and bridges truly are in Minnesota but it also seemed like an isolated case. Isolated until stringent inspections of other bridges started, that is.

Hundreds of Minnesota's bridges of varying importance were found to be woefully deficient and in danger of the same type of collapse. At that point it rapidly moved from being a danger to those using the bridges to being a major inconvenience to those who had used them on a daily basis as Minnesota was surprisingly found to have a lot of heavily-traveled river crossings, coincidentally where these bridges are.

First a major river crossing in St. Cloud, MN was found to be "deficient" and was closed and marked for replacement. This development spurred even more stringent inspections, moved up repairs and replacements and yet more bridge closures.

The latest closure (Minnesota Highway 43), though, is one in Winona, MN and that has residents and people who are employed in Winona but live across the river in Wisconsin angry and perplexed.

Imagine being part of the 18% of the workforce of the city of Winona who live in Wisconsin and must now choose between the two alternate crossings. Two crossings which lie 30 miles either north or south of Winona. Now imagine having to drive an additional 120 miles per day to get to your place of employment and back home again. Imagine having to do this indefinitely while the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MN-DOT) bumbles and stumbles to come up with both and explanation and solution.

Of course a good scapegoat is the manly looking former transportation commissioner, Carol Molnau. Her inaction and complete lack of planning coupled with the closed-off nature of her department is the definition of a perfect patsy for the crumbling infrastructure in Minnesota.

The list of negatives to come from her time as MN-DOT's boss is too long to describe fully but our state (and others, I'm sure) will be paying for her poor leadership and lack of maintenance for decades to come as the staggering cost of repairs could effectively bankrupt the state.