I was intrigued by the article on the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program progress (“I-5 Bridge replacement environmental impact statement to be published Sept. 20,” The Columbian, Sept. 11).
I recently read a book by Neil Gorsuch (“Over Ruled”) wherein he discusses the explosion of laws, rules and regulations we have experienced in the last few decades. He cites the following: The Empire State Building took just 410 days to build. In eight years during the Great Depression under FDR through the Works Progress Administration, we built some 4,000 new schools, 130 new hospitals, 290,000 new bridges, 150 new airfields, paved or repaired 280,000 miles of roads and planted over 24 million trees.
In the last three years, we allocated $7.5 billion to build 500,000 EV charging stations across the U.S. To date, 60 have been built.
On the local front, after 20 years, our progress on a new bridge is a 10,000-page document that expounds on the bridge’s potential benefits and impacts. The Columbian article highlights that this document is “one of the most significant milestones of our program to date.”
Expectations for government competence have surely regressed.
