Like most other people, those involved in bridge construction, inspection, and maintenance must be distressed about this past week’s collapse of Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis. The tragedy calls into question the state of the country’s other bridges as well as additional infrastructure. There are almost 600,000 bridges in the U.S. and about 75,000 of them are considered to be “structurally deficient”. (For state-by-state map views, see this MSNBC page and this GeoCommons map.) Fixing them would be quite expensive - $188 billion according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. Roads are also troubled with about 20% in poor shape according to some figures, with a repair cost of $460 billion according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Primary responsibility for maintaining the bridges and roads infrastructure falls to state and local governments. Many of them simply don’t collect enough or allocate enough funding to address the issue. The private sector is helping out in some places, by operating toll roads, for example. Businesses should also be pressing their legislators to budget adequately for infrastructure needs.

But the problem will persist and businesses will suffer in several ways – increased taxes, longer commutes, and more traffic congestion. According to some studies, traffic congestion already costs the economy around $65 billion each year in lost productivity.

Where I live in the Washington, DC area, today’s headline in the Washington Post screams, “Inspections Note Significant Flaws, But Officials Call Area Bridges Safe” (registration required). Not comforting - it’s like your doctor saying, “Your blood pressure is high and your arteries are somewhat clogged but don’t worry about a heart attack.” Nine major bridges link DC to Maryland and Virginia, crossing the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. These bridges are critical to government and commerce functioning daily.

There are no easy solutions to the maintenance problem but geospatial information and technologies can help. Aerial imagery helps in repair and new infrastructure planning. Geospatial modeling can help better analyze the stresses on the infrastructure. Street network routing and analysis can help determine alternate routes for emergencies or repair periods. Planners can explore locations for new road and bridge sites. When doing site location studies, businesses ought to account for the status of the surrounding infrastructure, as it plays a big role in many aspects of smooth operations. Loss of life from infrastructure failure is unacceptable when it could be prevented with proper maintenance.