Iowa Senator Warns Of Minneapolis-Like Bridge Collapse Here

JEFFERSON – While making the case for more road money, the Iowa Senate Transportation Committee chairman Thursday warned that decaying infrastructure set up Iowa for the potential of a bridge disaster “like what happened up in Minnesota.”

State Sen. Tom Rielly, D-Oskaloosa, referenced last summer’s Interstate 35 deadly bridge collapse in the Twin Cities during a field hearing in Jefferson on transportation matters.

About 20 people from area communities were at the meeting with Rielly and State Sen. Daryl Beall, D-Fort Dodge, also a member of the transportation committee.

Billed as a field hearing to get input from community leaders, the session served as a pitching point for planned “Time 21″ legislation to address an annual $200 million shortfall in Iowa road work. Beall and Rielly said a bill could emerge that increases pickup truck registration and other fees but that a gas-tax hike is likely off the table in the election year.

In his opening remarks Rielly said a recent study revealed that Iowa has the fourth-worst bridges in the United States.

According to the Associated Press (AP), the study found that 21 percent of Iowa’s 5,153 bridges were structurally deficient, meaning the structures have major deterioration to decks or other major components. The label doesn’t necessarily mean a bridge isn’t safe.

Repairing or replacing the bridges would cost the state roughly $257 million a year, according to the study, prepared by TRIP, a Washington-based nonprofit transportation research group composed of insurance companies, equipment manufacturers, construction firms and labor unions that depend on highway construction for jobs, the AP reports.

The AP and other news organizations that covered the report did not include information on how many years the funding would be required. That information was not readily available in the TRIP report either.
“I’m not trying to scare anyone,” Rielly said. “They’re safe to drive on.”

But the report shows Iowa must act on basic infrastructure now, Rielly said.

Carroll Mayor Jim Pedelty and others pressed legislators on the gas-tax issue, with Pedelty wondering about the intelligence of the state tax staying flat at 21 cents a gallon for nearly two decades. What happens to state road revenues if gas hits $4 a gallon and fewer people are at the pumps?

“Many legislators signed pledges to not ever increase taxes,” Rielly said.

While noting that Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat, is entrenched in his opposition to a gas-tax increase, Beall himself likely would favor one.

“With the fluctuating prices, with most people it wouldn’t even register,” Beall said.

During Thursday’s field hearing, a debate about four-laning U.S. 30 emerged. Economic development leader and Jefferson newspaper publisher Rick Morain asked Beall and Rielly to take politics out of prioritizing effort for U.S. 20 and U.S. 30.

One farmer with land along U.S. 30 made the case for a “Super-2″ expansion to protect ag land.

Carroll City Manager Gerald Clausen quickly noted that business and industry interested in locating in Carroll and at other points along Highway 30 aren’t going to be too impressed with a wider two-lane road.

“They want a four-lane road or they won’t come to your community,” Clausen said.

Former State Rep. Gene Blanshan, D-Panora (who represented Carroll and Greene counties for years) went further, suggesting that people along Highway 30 shouldn’t be too fired up about getting taxed more for a road scheme that he feels is tilted to U.S. 20 over Highway 30.