{"id":128,"date":"2025-08-14T20:22:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T20:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lingerrose.com\/?p=128"},"modified":"2025-08-15T19:32:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T19:32:24","slug":"a-quarter-of-americas-bridges-may-collapse-within-26-years-we-saw-the-whole-thing-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lingerrose.com\/?p=128","title":{"rendered":"A Quarter of America&#8217;s Bridges May Collapse Within 26 Years. We Saw the Whole Thing Coming."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"content-lead css-1f8o566 et2g3wt5\">\n<div class=\"content-lead-image css-sm2oir e17huqc62\" data-theme-key=\"lead-image-wrapper\" data-journey-blur=\"true\">\n<div class=\"css-96439d e17huqc61\"><picture class=\"css-1oxikel e1i0vlu30\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" title=\"Broken Bridge\" src=\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/broken-bridge-royalty-free-image-1725637213.jpg?crop=0.665xw:1.00xh;0.172xw,0&amp;resize=640:*\" sizes=\"auto, 100vw\" alt=\"broken bridge\" width=\"708\" height=\"708\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-body-content article-body standard-body-content css-zl6cs0 et2g3wt6\" data-journey-body=\"standard-article\">\n<ul class=\"css-1wk73g0 emevuu60\" data-node-id=\"0\">\n<li data-node-id=\"0.0\">Around 25 percent of bridges in the U.S. were built before the 1960s, and in an age of climate change, these ailing pieces of infrastructure are starting to feel the heat.<\/li>\n<li data-node-id=\"0.1\">According to a new report by\u00a0<em data-node-id=\"0.1.1\">The New York Times<\/em>, bridges are facing unprecedented pressures from climate events, including large temperature swings, increased flooding, and troublesome soil erosion.<\/li>\n<li data-node-id=\"0.2\">A bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2021 earmarks $110 billion for rebuilding the nation\u2019s aging roads, bridges, and highways, but these new projects need to build in preparation from our climate change future.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr class=\"css-18pb4rg emevuu60\" data-node-id=\"1\" \/>\n<p class=\"css-i9p093 emevuu60\" data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"2\">U.S. infrastructure is dangerously behind the times\u2014and nowhere is that more apparent than the country\u2019s aging bridges. According to a new report by\u00a0<em data-node-id=\"2.1\"><a class=\"body-link product-links css-1kk1geb e1aq0z090\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/02\/climate\/climate-change-bridges.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-vars-ga-outbound-link=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/02\/climate\/climate-change-bridges.html\" data-vars-ga-ux-element=\"Hyperlink\" data-vars-ga-call-to-action=\"The New York Times\" data-vars-ga-product-id=\"8e56a868-dad2-44e8-955d-233311371238\" data-node-id=\"2.1.0\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/02\/climate\/climate-change-bridges.html\" data-product-url=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/02\/climate\/climate-change-bridges.html\" data-affiliate=\"false\" data-affiliate-url=\"\" data-affiliate-network=\"\" data-vars-ga-product-price=\"$0.00\" data-vars-ga-product-retailer-id=\"0f86fed9-af4d-496c-a72f-357378d6019a\" data-vars-ga-link-treatment=\"(not set) | (not set)\" data-vars-ga-axid=\"c4a37ed0-deb6-4f56-975b-e001e7ebbece\">The New York Times<\/a><\/em>, one-fourth of the nation\u2019s bridges were built before 1960, and as if old age wasn\u2019t enough stress on these rusted-out trusses, cracked asphalt roadways, and worn-down foundations, climate change has only made a bad problem worse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-i9p093 emevuu60\" data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"3\">\u201cWe have a bridge crisis that is specifically tied to extreme weather events,\u201d Paul Chinowsky, a civil engineering professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, told\u00a0<em data-node-id=\"3.1\">The New York Times<\/em>. \u201cThese are not things that would happen under normal climate circumstances. These are not things that we\u2019ve ever seen at this rate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-i9p093 emevuu60\" data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"4\">Due to the age of these bridges, many of them were designed without the need to withstand the sharp temperature swings that are now commonplace across the U.S. due to climate change. As metal tends to have that pesky habit of swelling and contracting with rising and failing temperatures, our warming world becomes a particularly thorny issue for these ailing pieces of connective infrastructure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Around 25 percent of bridges in the U.S. were built before the 1960s, and in an age of climate &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"A Quarter of America&#8217;s Bridges May Collapse Within 26 Years. We Saw the Whole Thing Coming.\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/lingerrose.com\/?p=128#more-128\" aria-label=\"Read more about A Quarter of America&#8217;s Bridges May Collapse Within 26 Years. We Saw the Whole Thing Coming.\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":false,"total_views":0,"today_views":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lingerrose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lingerrose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lingerrose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lingerrose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lingerrose.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lingerrose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136,"href":"https:\/\/lingerrose.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lingerrose.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lingerrose.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lingerrose.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}