The Sandbox

Bridges. Many people drive over them everyday to get to work, drop their kids off at school, but what many do not know is that they may be putting themselves or other loved ones at risk by driving over these potentially unsafe structures on a daily basis. There are three categories that go into constructing and maintaining bridges around the state, and especially in Mercer county. One is the environmental, bad or good, about bridges and how they affect the area around them. Second, is the economics and state plan. This is based off of how much it will cost to rebuild a bridge or fix them if they are damaged. The last is the history and federal plan involving bridges in the area and what has happened to them since they were built or before they were built.

Bridges matter to the people in Mercer County. There are a myriad of bridges in just that county alone. If this is the most efficient way to commute and it becomes damaged, this could exponentially increase the allotted time of travel. Furthermore, the bridges that are not located in Mercer are of extreme importance to those who live within that community. Bridges located in New York or a more local example, Trenton, are the easiest routes of travel used by commuters, vacationers, and family members. If these bridges face extensive damage, increased travel times would keep commuters from their occupations, hence negatively affecting the economy and others aspects of life.

Moreover, there are certain environmental concerns involving the creation of bridges and their endurance ensuing construction. There is a desire to understand the overall budget for these structures and how the state compensates for them. As well as this, the federal and state plans and how they are managed are a valuable aspect of the construction and success of these bridges. Finally, the economics and history behind the bridges are of critical interest.

To begin, the stable and workable material known formally as concrete is the superior medium used to construct bridges. Concrete finds it success from being composed of limestone, its abundance in the United States, and the fact that it is a renewable substance. The industry has reduced emissions of concrete by 33% since 1975 and plans to voluntarily reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 10% below the 1990 baseline in order to minimize waste and conserve larger amounts of concrete. Concrete makes use of recycled and abundant materials found within the country and utilizes environmentally conscious manufacturing processes while being a staple in the creation of bridges that communities nationally require for transportation, commerce, and quality of life.

In addition, the production of exact amounts of concrete in order to avoid excess is the most efficient method to conserve amounts that will not be utilized. When a bridge composed mainly of this material has reached the end of its functionality, the concrete can be recycled by compression and then used to fill roads. These bridges are significantly successful in their duration of existence as they can withstand extreme temperatures which explains why their lifespan can exceed 100 years.

Also, bridges are a critical component of this nation’s infrastructure, making it possible to ship raw materials and finished goods to factories, warehouses, suppliers, distributors, stores, and end-consumers. Additionally, wages earned by bridge construction and maintenance workers have a positive economic impact when used to purchase items at local businesses. These structures increase cash flow when joining two places that complement each other economically.

Many positive impacts of bridges have been discussed; however these structures possess negative aspects as well. These include the maintenance and constant spending on improvements. The main issue involving New Jersey’s and in particular Mercer County’s bridges is that they are in need of constant upgrades, and have been neglected for far too long. The population is growing at a rate at which infrastructure cannot maintain, which is why New Jersey has an estimated 8.8 percent of structurally deficient bridges. The state said “2,241 bridges are in need of repairs and estimated it would cost $6.3 billion to fix them.” Mercer County alone has an estimated 400 million dollars’ worth of bridge repair and to fix or repair structures like this often takes a long time, and goes extremely over budget. This leads to prioritizing of repairs which leaves other bridges on a “waiting list” so to speak. While waiting to be repaired these bridges are still in constant use, some structures sustain over 150,000 daily crossings only further damaging them and making them more expensive to replace.

In the last five years, New Jersey has been less neglectful than other states across the nation, increasing bridge investment to 48.8 percent of highway and bridge contract awards, compared to an average of 28.9 percent nationwide. The issue in which former Governor Christie tried to solve is how to pay for all of these urgent repairs. He signed a bill raising the gasoline tax 23 cents per gallon, the first tax hike in his 2,460 days in office and the state's first increase in the tax on gasoline since 1988. The 23-cent gas tax hike will produce $1.23 billion annually to finance an eight year, $16 billion transportation program. A referendum asked voters to amend the state Constitution to dedicate the new revenue to transportation projects. This vote passed allowing for the state to fix its massive infrastructure issue. Since this bill has passed, in an interview with State Transportation Department spokesman Stephen Schapiro said "New Jersey has continued its trend over the past few years of reducing the number of structurally deficient bridges in the state, even as more bridges become structurally deficient each year". This increase in funding is an immense help to the state’s failing infrastructure, however, the question that remains is with the increase in traffic and cars on the road will this problem ever be fixed or only contained for the moment?

Bibliography

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“Effect of Environmental Factors on Bridge Foundation Construction.” The Constructor, 17 Sept. 2017, theconstructor.org/structures/environmental-factors-effect-bridge-foundations/18174/.

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https://www.state.nj.us/transportation/refdata/bridgereport102007.pdf