Stimulus Bridges to Nowhere

Conn Carroll / April 01, 2009

President Barack Obama’s nearly $800 billion in deficit spending is just beginning to be spent and already stories are trickling in about how the money is being wasted. Remember that bridge to nowhere in Alaska? Well the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reports that Obama’s stimulus is funding 37 bridges just like it in Wisconsin alone:

A vast majority of the Wisconsin bridges awarded construction money in the first wave of federal stimulus funding carry fewer than 1,000 vehicles a day, a Journal Sentinel analysis of federal bridge inspections shows. And many bridges carry significantly fewer than that. The 37 bridges average 568 vehicles a day.

These mostly small, rural bridges will receive $15.8 million, while high priority larger bridges with daily traffic counts approaching 60,000 vehicles were ineligible for funding in the first round. (more…)