California Infrastructure in Dire Need of Repair

In California, it's inevitable that a large earthquake will occur again. While the shaking ground may seem second nature to those who live in California, the majority of the shaking is barely noticeable at all to the residents. Even then, when a stronger magnitude quake strikes, the first thought in many Californian's heads is if the particular quake they're experiencing is the next big one. But what if it was?

While California won't fall into the ocean like some movies such as Escape From L.A. and San Andreas, there is the real threat of significant damage, especially within the state's infrastructure. As with the rest of the country, much of California's infrastructure is susceptible to massive damage due to the neglect by the government to maintain what has already been built.

In a report released by the United States government, one in nine bridges are deemed dangerous. Seven-term Republican congressman Ray LaHood who was the secretary of transportation during President Barack Obama's first term, has been quoted as saying, "I don't want to say they're unsafe. But they're dangerous."

In California, residents have already witnessed what can happen when infrastructure collapses. In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck the San Francisco Bay area while the country watched on TV. With game two of the World Series underway, the ground shook violently to a peak magnitude of 6.9 during rush hour. Thankfully because of the Series, the rush hour was considerably lighter than normal, but highest number of fatalities due to the quake occurred because of infrastructure failure.

Forty-two people were killed due to the Cypress Street Viaduct collapse on Interstate 880, when the upper deck portion of the double decker freeway collapsed, crushing cars on the lower deck. More famously, the upper deck of the Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed onto the lower deck, fortunately killing only one, but still scaring America as they watched the national news coverage of the chaos.

Southern California isn't immune to the infrastructure damage caused by earthquakes either. In 1994, Northridge was struck by a 6.7 earthquake at 4:30AM. Interstates 5 and 10 both suffered massive damage to their freeway bridges, as did California State Freeways 14, 118, and the 210. Several Cal State Universities suffered massive damage as did 11 hospitals that had to transfer patients out to other hospitals that escaped severe damage.

Because of the damage caused by the Northridge earthquake, California's legislature passed laws to strengthen building codes, but many of the roads, bridges, and dams were ever touched. This leaves nearly 20 percent of the bridges in California to be rated a D- by structural inspectors.

America itself has over 70,000 bridges, which means approximately 8,000 of them are in dire need of repair. Congress needs to step up before bridges start collapsing like they have in Minnesota and Washington. California needs infrastructure repair work even more because of the possibility of earthquakes. Without a public works program in place, deaths and disaster are a high possibility in the state of California.

Photo by Robert A. Eplett for FEMA