During the “New Deal” of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration in the Untied States, many infrastructure projects were put into place and the nation stored up its highways, byways, and bridges. Since those mid-century days, there have not been many major renovations or repairs to many of these projects and the effects of this neglect are being felt in many different places around the country.
Since the days of Roosevelt and the “New Deal,” there have been expansions to our infrastructure, but not many significant efforts to shore up the projects that were built almost 100 years ago. In the nation’s 102 largest metropolitan regions, more people take trips across bridges that are deficient in cars, trucks, motorcycles, and vans that would not have even been thought of in the days the bridges were being built.
The builders of these types of bridges expected traffic, but nothing like what these bridges are being expected to accommodate in today’s world. There are over two hundred million trips being taken daily across bridges that are in need of significant repair and that means that other kinds of accommodations will have to be made in order for them to be repaired in a sufficient manner.
The average age of America’s 607,380 bridges is 42 years old, and while maintenance is performed as needed, that maintenance is rarely more than patchwork. Things will have to change very soon, however, for one out of every nine of these bridges is structurally deficient and in need of overhauling. According to the Federal Highway Administration, eliminating the nation’s bridge deficient backlog by 2028 would take an investment of $20.5 billion annually. Right now, we are only spending $12.8 billion per year.
Bridges are a very important part of shoring up our infrastructure, but the nation’s highways and smaller roadways should not be overlooked. When construction is planned for these roadways, there must be more than simply a plan for the road construction itself. Depending on where the project is and what is being done, measures must be taken to make sure that regular life can still go on in spite of construction efforts.
One of the ways this is accomplished is by employing the use of the temporary pedestrian bridge rental or other temporary road construction methods. A temporary pedestrian bridge rental is a short term bridge that can safely take pedestrians across or around construction that is occurring where normal traffic would usually go through.
There are many different types of temporary pedestrian bridge rental rigs that can be put into place without taking too much time away from the construction plan itself, but setting up these types of temporary bridges and walkways are a vital part of the process and should be taken very seriously.
It is very clear when you look around the country that we are in need of some very dynamic and substantive repairs and overhauls. Keeping the public safety requires these repairs, but during the repairs themselves, the public should also be kept safe. Temporary walkways, bridges, tunnels, and sidewalks are all a part of the entire process.
If you are in a city that is undergoing big time changes, make sure you are following the signs and paths to safety. Even though they may only be temporary structures, the safety of you and your fellow citizens is as important today as it was when Roosevelt gave us the “New Deal.”