Concerns Over Fixing Aging Infrastructure Continue

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by: Colorado Pols

Whether they will admit it or not, most people understand that the government (and yes, taxes) are a necessary part of our everyday lives when it comes to basic things like firefighters, police officers, and roads. It can be difficult to continue your daily commute if a giant freakin' hole opens up in the middle of the road — Sheridan Blvd., for instance.

Continue on for a half-mile, then turn left at the GIANT FREAKIN HOLE IN THE STREET.

(via TheDenverChannel.com)

As 9News reports, Colorado's aging infrastructure needs some love:

It is the hidden problem waiting to happen. Beneath the streets and highways, all across this country, pipes carrying water to residents are aging and getting a day closer to failing.

"The system was designed for about a 50 to 100 year lifetime and many of them were put in shortly after World War II," said Ross Corotis, an engineering professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "They've reached really the end of their aging life span."

A ruptured 12-inch water main on Sheridan Boulevard between Fourth and Fifth Avenues is representative of the problem. The pipe was installed in 1952. The pipe ruptured and created a sink hole approximately 27 feet long, 15 feet wide and 10 feet deep on Sheridan Boulevard. It forced the closure of northbound Sheridan between First and Fifth Avenues and southbound Sheridan between Fourth and Fifth Avenues.

Denver Water expects the repairs to be completed and the road reopened by midnight. The water main break left one building and 16 residential customers along Sheridan without water.

"You see this and you say this is a shame. But it is not unexpected. In a statistical sense it is going to happen," Corotis said. [Pols emphasis]

Events like this are a good opportunity for elected officials and community leaders to remind the public that you can't fix roads and bridges without money. Nobody wants to pay more taxes, but there is a difference between desire and understanding that some things we take for granted are pretty damn important.

8 thoughts on “Concerns Over Fixing Aging Infrastructure Continue”

Moderatus says:

July 31, 2013 at 12:50 pm

Stop giving out free health care to people who don't need it and you'll have plenty to fix the roads.

If you can't pay for Medicaid expansions, why expand them? Let's focus on roads like we do on freebies for the poor, and that will help everyone.

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1. ClubTwitty says:
  
  July 31, 2013 at 1:00 pm
  
  'Freebies for the Poor'?
  
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2. Curmudgeon says:
  
  July 31, 2013 at 1:02 pm
  
  Exactly what "Freebies" do the poor get that you think they don't deserve, Cletus? (Bonus points if you mention the Obamaphone)…..
  
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MADCO says:

July 31, 2013 at 2:41 pm

I was going to ask if there was some way we could blame illegal immmigration…Moderatus is wayyy ahead of me.

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notaskinnycook says:

August 1, 2013 at 12:19 am

We pay the healthcare bills for the poor one way or another, Immoderatass. Either through regulated Medicaid payments or $6 Tylenol tablets and $10 gauze pads when we need emergency care.

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Duke Cox says:

August 1, 2013 at 6:09 am

Stop giving out free health care to people who don't need it

Thank you, Dr. Moderatus.

Most of the hypochondriacs I have known were pretty well to do. Otherwise, you are talking about people you perceive to be freeloaders and whose health care you feel no obligation to help provide. Is that about right?

I work and pay out of pocket for my own health care and give thousands of dollars a year to United Healthcare or Humana (…or one of those. My wife knows..doesn't matter to me…they are all pretty much the same) for catastrophic care in the eventuality I might get really sick. We have never received a penny from our coverage for 15 years.

If I were paying that amount in taxes to a singlepayer system, the increased efficiency would not only cover us, but could help those many people who have not been as fortunate as I. I'm good with that. It rings true to those Christian values my mother taught me. " You cannot serve God and mammon (money) at the same time." Pretty clear.

That sentiment is not unique to Christianity, nor any religion, really. Greed ain't good…didn't your mama tell you? It is contradictory to the notion of freedom ( Unless, of course, you are talking about the freedom to be greedy) and well being for the greater good.

But, laying out thousands a year so the CEO of United Healthcare can make $75,000,000 a year and live in a palace. Not so good with that. That whole Robin Hood thing. Maybe it is because I grew up in Southern Appalachia…in a family of working poor. I was the first in my family to go to college. I know something of the challenges faced by those who, through no fault of their own, didn't get chances (or parents) like mine.

Oh…BTW…thanks for dropping by and lobbing softballs at us. It gives us a platform to expess ourselfs, refute your universally insipid brain ooze, and a rewarding opportunity to call you names…you stupid, immoral, person, you.

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Albert J. Nock says:

August 1, 2013 at 9:37 am

Give them (them as in government) more money and they do 2 things. Exert less energy shopping for good deals and divert more money to other areas of government. These diversions will be items such as more employees (even though work load has never increased), perks, redundant equipment, social programs and other non-necessity.

The infrastructure is ALWAYS neglected no matter tax rate and revenue amount…

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1. b_trexel says:
  
  September 16, 2013 at 5:04 pm
  
  IF the TAX $'s were applied to the projects. . .
  
  Jordon RD, Lincoln Ave to Main ST – has been Built & RE-Built.. ? ? ? Times.. ! NOW "they" have a 'new' EXcuse – the 'un-anticipated' RAINS!..
  
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