I once worked for a company that operated water treatment plants for municipalities. We were obliged to keep everything running, comply with all applicable laws and regulations, bill customers, and replace things that needed replacement.
Our biggest hurdle in selling projects (aside from laws that prohibited it) was that water plants are repositories for the Mayor's alcoholic brother in law, and other ne'er do wells in city government that they can't put anyplace else. So we had to agree to employ everyone at the plant for at least two or three years. Of course those sots wanted nothing to do with gainful employment and made their ways back to the city government within a short period. Within a couple years we were running the plants on half staff and making a tidy little profit.
I bring this up because the City of Pittsburgh could put bridge inspection, maintenance, and replacement out for bid, and have it done by a private contractor or two. They have an annual budget for this purpose, and it is apparent that much of that money is wasted. Everything government does, it fucks up.
Let the bidding contractors propose an annual fee for keeping the bridges safe and passable, with the promise of being able to toll some of them in due course (maybe 5-7 years out). Then when a bridge collapses they can blame the contractor.
But notice what has NOT happened in Pittsburgh. They cannot even decide whether or when the bridge was last inspected, let alone who signed off on that inspection. If the same thing happened in a private company, the individual inspector's name would be known, and he would be hanging by his toenails from the standing structure of that bridge.
Seriously, this is something that should be contracted out. Leaving safety to city employees is a fool's bargain.
Incidentally, I ride my bike over that bridge about 40 times a year on recreational rides. There is a clay tennis court about a quarter mile away and I like to watch them play. It is one of the few facilities adequately maintained by the city. There must be someone in government who likes to play on clay. The loss of that bridge will be a huge headache for a lot of people, both directly and indirectly. It was reducing traffic in the dreaded Squirrel Hill tunnels for commuters. No more.
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