Boswell Urges Focus on Transportation Needs as Iowa Ranks 3rd in the Nation for Deficient Highway Bridges

Leonard Boswell

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Leonard Boswell continued to call for increased funding for job-creating transportation and infrastructure projects after Iowa was ranked third in the nation for structurally deficient highway bridges.

“Today’s report that 21.7 percent of Iowa’s bridges are structurally deficient should be a wake-up call at the local, state, and federal levels that transportation funding is critical to move people and goods across Iowa, and our nation, safely and efficiently,” said Boswell, a senior Member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “The focus right now needs to be on jobs and investing in ways to create them. Repairing and rebuilding our nation’s bridges would do just that while also addressing the larger concern of public safety. We have the power to prevent a catastrophe like the 2007 I-35 bridge collapse in Minnesota by remedying this problem today. In my Committee, I will fight for Congress to make public safety and transportation investment a priority to keep our economy growing and our citizens safe.”

Transportation for America released its report on the state of America’s bridges today. Nationally, 11.5 percent of highway bridges were determined to be structurally deficient.

Below is a 3rd District county breakdown of the percentage of deficient bridges:

· Lucas: 38.9%
· Keokuk: 38.3%
· Monroe: 34.9%
· Tama: 32.6%
· Marion: 28.9%
· Jasper: 24.3%
· Iowa: 23.1%
· Poweshiek: 21.8%
· Mahaska: 21.3%
· Benton: 15.3%
· Grundy: 14.9%
· Polk: 12.0%

Posted by on Mar 31 2011. Filed under Local News, National News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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