Limited Dollars: New Bridge Or Old Bridges

If you have applied for a job lately, you know that the Human Resources people are very picky in whom they choose and very sophisticated in their techniques of recruitment.

One of the tools they use is to give to a person a fact situation and see how he/she would react.

Let's pretend that you, dear reader, are applying to be the financial/budget director of MDOT. Here is the kind of question that you might be asked:

MDOT, like every Department in the State of Michigan is under intense financial pressure. The Governor has warned that the State could run out of money in a few months and would have to shut down.

You are being asked to choose between two programs. One is to build with Canada a "public bridge" that might cost the State a billion dollars. The other is to allow a "private bridge" to be built where private money is used to build the bridge so it costs the State nothing PLUS the State gets from the Federal Government matching grants of $2 billion.

Just as you are about to make a decision, an aide rushes into the room with this newspaper story about bridges in Michigan which will cost MDOT hundreds of millions of scarce taxpayer dollars.

• "Crumbling bridges tied to bad concrete
  
  Nearly 10% of state's bridges built with faulty material; fixes will run $500,000 per structure.
  Christine Ferretti / The Detroit News
  
  State transportation officials blame bad concrete for a crumbling overpass that sent boulder-sized chunks onto cars last month on Interstate 696, and fear as many as 10 percent of Michigan's 13,000 bridges may have been built with the same material.
  
  That's the grim conclusion from the Michigan Department of Transportation, which is racing to identify structures like the Groesbeck overpass in Warren that were built with an experimental concrete.
  
  The material was used for eight years in the 1970s before officials concluded it's prone to falling apart, said Richard M. Smith, manager of the agency's bridge inspection program.
  
  The repair bill isn't cheap: $500,000 per bridge. Smith estimated as many as 1,300 bridges may be vulnerable. That would cost $650 million that a state in a budget crisis can't afford, and Smith said stopgap measures are the only option.
  
  "We are trying to determine how much of it may be in the system and where it's at," Smith said. "We cannot live with unsafe conditions. It is totally unacceptable."
  
  The new worry comes atop a string of incidents involving bridges breaking apart and sending concrete onto vehicles. Several vehicles were hit from March 16 to 20 in Warren, Livonia and Melvindale.
  
  The Livonia and Warren bridges were deemed sound in recent state inspections obtained by The Detroit News. Another 16 percent of Michigan bridges are structurally deficient, placing the state in the bottom 10 nationwide, according to TRIP, a Washington, D.C.-based research group.
  
  7K bridges may be affected
  
  That worries motorists such as Christine St. Clair, a Redford Township motorcyclist.
  
  "It looks like we don't need helmets to protect us from traffic, we need them to protect us from the overpasses," she said.
  
  Smith said state inspectors examining large pieces of concrete from the 34-year-old Groesbeck overpass in Warren discovered it was made from blast furnace aggregate made from slag, glassy residue left over from smelting.
  
  State inspectors aren't sure how long it will take to evaluate 5,500-plus state-owned bridges, and they suspect some of the 6,700 bridges owned by municipalities may also be impacted. The problems could cut the lifespan of the bridges, which should last 90 years with regular maintenance, Smith said.
  
  "It's a complicated problem and we are very sensitive to making sure the public is safe," he said. "It is worrisome to us, thinking that things will be predictable when they aren't."

The HR person, now asks: What would you do?

If your answer was to look for another position, then you would be hired on the spot! You have common sense.