Story of the Week | December 11, 2007

Danger on Our Roads and Bridges

The American highway system cracks

By Mike Magee

We spend a lot of time in the United States arguing about our health care system and especially health care costs. We focus in on Medicare reimbursement, hospitals, insurers – all of the usual topics – but often we lose sight of the true meaning of “health.”

Health, in its broadest sense, extends from individuals to communities to entire societies, and is inextricably linked to our environments – the way we interact and function together with the world around us. A sound national environmental infrastructure helps pave the way for good overall health – and thus, the importance of today’s Health Commentary topic: Our nation’s dangerously deteriorating highway system.

The dramatic I35W bridge collapse in the summer of 2007 in Minneapolis provides just a glimpse of the problems lurking with our highway system. There are more than 700 similar bridges in the United States, and vast stretches of road connecting them that are shaky in terms of condition and upkeep. The American Society of Civil Engineers says that one third of the highway fatalities in the United States each year are from substandard roads and bridges.

With our treasury being severely stressed by the global war on terror, it’s unlikely this problem will addressed anytime soon. But how long will it be before we see another Minneapolis?

To learn more, watch this week’s video (embedded with this blog post) or read the full transcript, below. As always, I’m interested in your perspective on this issue. Please post a comment.

Transcript

Read the full transcript of this story.

Related Websites


	Report Card for America's Infrastructure
	American Society of Civil Engineers web project lays out the problems and costs for fixing our national highway and bridge system.
	http://www.asce.org/reportcard/2005/index.cfm

	How It Was Built
	U.S. Department of Transportation website recounts the history of the American interstate road system.
	http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/homepage.cfm

Topic Tags: public health

by Health Commentary

Comments

December 12, 2007

Concern About Highways

I think you should consider not writing about this subject.

Mike,

I feel as though you are fear mongering with this topic. I struggle to see the connection between health care (which is your specialty) and civil engineering even after your tie in above. There is an overall concern about this topic, but creating more fear within the general population is not going to solve anything. Suggesting solutions would be a great start or getting your local congressperson involved, but all I have seen in the full transcript is a regurgitation of facts that had been provided by most news publications after the Minnesota collapse. Maybe I missed something in there, please let me know if I did. Jud

by Jud

December 13, 2007

There are broader issues to consider

Jud-

Thanks for your comment. Regurgitation or not, the facts are pretty impressive and reflect broader issues on the priorities of our society, how we direct our limited resources, and how we embed confidence, trust and hope in a populace increasingly surrounded by chaos. It all comes back to the definition of Health and Politics. For me Health is about each individual reaching his or her full human potential and Politics is about the people asking of themselves and their government a committment of service and stewardship of resources to best serve the "we" rather then just the "me". For maximum mental, physical and spirtual health we must invest properly in true homeland security - that includes roads, housing, transportation, health delivery, our environment, our police and fireman, our food and medicine supply system, and our information infrastructure. To believe that these are segments of society unrelated to each other and non contributors to our general health, challenges Cardinal Bernardin's instruction to the AMA more than a decade ago. He said, "There are four words in the English language that have common English routes. They are heal, health, whole and holy. To heal in the modern world, you must provide health. To have health, you must keep the individual, the family the community, and Society whole. And if you can do all that, well that's a holy thing." My intent then is not simply to rehash, nor to create further fear, but rather to ask why are we increasingly "not whole" and what should be done about it?

Mike

by Health Commentary