privatize, privatize, privatize (and some call it giveaway)
4
ps: I cannot prove it but have the impression that without freeway privatizations in italy we would have had more bridge collapses
2
What a far cry from the time when the family relied on the sheer earnestness of a mother knitting a yellow sweater.
4
1. Propagandize "government" and "regulation" into dirty words. Check - see, (R)onald (R)eagan.
2. Systematically demonize and underfund/understaff government operational and "regulatory" agencies. Check - see, every (R) budget.
3. Whine about the "ineffectiveness" of the underfunded, understaffed operational and regulatory agencies. Check - see, (R) political campaigns.
4. Provide solution by privatizing everything and allowing the private companies to self-regulate. Check - see, (R) proposals to "solve" the problem they created.
5. Ignore the resultant graft and corruption while pooh-poohing the concerns of the ripped-off public. Check - see, every (R) administration.
6. Shift the political debate to gay marriage to get re-elected.
7. Repeat ad nauseam.
27
I start saying that at the time of privatization I was mad both as a citizen and a car driver but maybe is too easy to fall into these demagogic ideas of blaming this family alone for the accident. trains and toll roads are among those few things working well in Italy. the Telepass (automatic toll system) was invented by them and copied everywhere. at the time of privatization nobody tried to outbid the Benetton family, because rates and programmed investments were high . the terrible accident on the bridge is to blame also on the state and hopefully and thanking God will remain a rarity in what I consider a good example of privatization
4
Any company contracted by the government for the construction or operation of a public utility/thoroughfare, etc should not have authority to choose inspectors. It is a necessary and inherent function of the government. Otherwise, it's just the proverbial fox in the henhouse.
10
This article brings up a point known to all engineers: if the guy running the company doesn't know diddly about the technology, then the product will be junk. There are thousands of decisions that go into something like bridge design and maintenance, and the most important ones will be decided by the top brass. Ultimately, they are the ones who will satiate their egos and pocket any profits.
This was an important lesson in the U.S. airline industry, too. That is, that Federal regulators vet top management so that they understand the technology of aircraft. This lesson was amplified in the case of Sun Country Airlines. It was acquired in 2005 by Petters Group Worldwide, and at that time top management was decision-making control over the airline, as well as unrestricted access to airport facilities worldwide. In 2008 Tom Petters, CEO of the corporation, was convicted in a Ponzi scheme and is now imprisoned at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth. It is interesting that Petters, who has long been a shady character in the local Minnesota business scene, was investigated and tried in a Federal crime shortly after buying the airline.
A similar lesson seems to be unfolding amidst the crash investigation of Lion Air 610. That airline seems to be run by lackeys with little regard for maintenance of the aircraft and the quality of employees.
6
I expected more from the NYT. What about the bridge design? The quality of its original and replacement materials? Oversight during the construction? Past, present and future issues in bridges with similar engineering, if any?
4
It is one of the arguments against Amazon in NY which is that they want to benefit from the infrastructure of Ny but they don't want to invest in it or participate. they even ask for s tax exemption while they are already registered fiscally in Europe ( not in the USA ) and cheat there to pay zero taxes while invading the market and destroying the European economy.
People have fallen in that mystique that they click on a computer and get what they want delivered without thinking how it gets there, who works and in what conditions and how roads, airports, bridges get financed or maintained.
7
If I remember correctly from a previous article on the subject, one of the major problems affecting the bridge was the lack of public will to do anything but maintain the status quo. The traffic on the bridge was beyond it's capacity, while its design was flawed and impractical.
In Canada, a nuclear reactor that provided most of the world's medical isotopes (this has since changed) was ordered to remain open in spite of serious concerns coming from Canada's nuclear watchdog.
In situations like this, there is often lots of blame to pass around, but we should be cognizant of the fact that not everything is as it seems.
7
@Zack
Privatization is essentially the President's plan for infrastructure. There are probably plutocrats from Russia who would like to invest in more than NY real estate.
12
@Zack is "Canada's nuclear watchdog " a private mercenary ? What you call "public will " in the Genoa case was not the "public " = the people but representatives for the people.
It is important not to make the confusion that is too frequent in the USA . Government is bad . Private capitalist ordinance is good and regulates itself.
Here the bridge has "regulated " itself. bringing people down and showing the inherent corruption in the Italian society ate the time when the ultra conservative forces ( obviously corrupted ) have come back to power.
3
This is what awaits us if the GOP has its way. They already did it with prisons. Lucky for them no one seems to care about prisoners. But they're coming for the post office, VA, and other stuff. Just wait.
21
Don't forget Social Security - the holy grail for the republican privatizers.
8
The world has a 1% problem and we need to start fixing it. We can start with taxation and then imprisonment.
15
@Steve
How true, i just posted this comment on a board re: The Trump Musical: ‘Anything Goes’
It's clear that all this chaos happens when people allow the concentration of power and unlimited financial resources in a hands of few corrupt, drunken with absolute power characters.
When I first came to America in 1980 there were no mention of billionaires in american cultural lexicon, even in a trashy show like "The Life of Rich and Famous".
It's all changed in a span of two decades because of the government policy, constant lobbying, bribes, corporate donations filling the pockets of sold out greedy, amoral politicians who were happy to oblige and let all the regulations loose.
So income inequality as of today is grotesque to the point of insanity. It's on display in every corner of the world.
Excess of money in politics, creates insatiable greed and corrupts our political process. It's all greatly distorted.
The Chameleon-in-Chief during his campaign was ask, if he was in favor of raising taxes on a rich, he said yes, including myself.
He cut more taxes on the rich including himself.
Is he accountable...what a strange word "accountability"
No one was hold accountable for 2008 market collapse, not one of the billionaires was sent to jail for ruining lives and safety net of millions.
And we continue the same vicious cycle of no accountability.
And now we all paying the price for having trump and the whole branch of our government just like him...unaccountable.
9
And L. DelVecchio(?) formerly of Luxottica..a silent rich partner..prego!
5
What about the quality of the concrete used in the construction of that infamous bridge? There is a whole piece to be written here about the relationship of Italian post war builders and corruption.
Good luck with this.
9
Argh. This is the neo-liberal/libertarian business modus operandi. Amass a complex blend of companies, get cozy with politicians, and pretend to be doing good things for society while robbing it blind on the side, starving it of the capital needed to fund independent inspections regularly. No oversight? No problem! They'll be happy to relieve the government of the burden and regulate themselves. Texas does the same thing. We have four different companies operating a mess of toll roads, and the comfy relationships between Republican politicians and business are a disgrace. It's open corruption, with Texas labeling it all "business friendly" politics. Businessmen build personal relationships with government officials and then feel free to circumvent the state legislature and public scrutiny. The result? Lousy services, unequal representation, and a total lack of public accountability. As long as they're anti-immigrant and anti-abortion, politicians continue to make out like bandits under this type of arrangement, because voters have little idea what goes on behind the scenes.
22
Basically, Benettons has a PR disaster, but won't suffer much financial loss, let alone legal liability.
6
It's just so blatently obvious that that 1% go out of their way to literally prey on the 99%. Nothing but rabid self entitle vultures who denigrate society in order to justify their theft. They truly are deplorable. Go ahead NYTimes and delete this post because I stated a harsh truth.
13
Just goes to show that government oversight of business is necessary
25
I have always said that there are services that have no business being in the profit-driven private sector, among them being healthcare, social security, and public works.
The private sector will always reduce service, cut corners, underpay workers, etc., etc., in order to magnify their income.
If the public sector is more inefficient, see the above. If it is grossly inefficient, then policies and procedures need to be modified, not turn the service over to a privatized consortium. If that is what the politicians want to do, vote them out. All of us have seen "privatized" government services reduced to a fraction of what was provided before, whether it be Federal, state, county, or city services. Yet someone is lining their pockets and getting rich off of it.
As to public-private-partnerships (PPPs)? Why should anyone think that if the government can't afford to do something, that a PPP can make a huge profit, make it affordable, and be a "good deal" for the taxpayer? Doesn't add up.
Private enterprise can be a good thing, but not when it comes to performing public services. There are those that will call me a liberal and a socialist - they use like an insult - but all I want is the best service I can get for the taxes I pay. That does not include giving profit pies to the already wealthy.
41
What a spectacular piece of journalism
This is why I subscribe.
And after reading this...and worrying about Republican control of our own country here in the US, I fear for our future.
I genuinely fear for our future.
26
By definition privatization cannot fulfill a public good.
Even the debate of it proves corruption is in the bloodstream.
22
Benneton can replace/repair the bridge, and pay all compensation due as a result of the collapse.
Very 'important' people need to do some time, 5 years+ in the big house, (old age/poor health should not be a reason for a suspended jail sentence).
When both these measures are carried out, all privately managed toll roads will very quickly become very well maintained. The government should refuse to allow any sale of toll roads until within a year of contract expiry.
12
A wealthy family fleeces a private company masquerading as a public-serving entity, the company cuts corners to maximize profits, and we are shocked when it ends in tragedy. How unoriginal, shameless, and predictable. Is there a lesson learned here? Of course; will there be a new way to finance a public resource such as a safe highway? Don't hold your breath.
21
Agree with many of these comments against privatization of essential services. Why should a clothing company be able to do an adequate job of maintaining a bridge? Absurd.
The Constitution decrees that people ARE the government; not an incompetent, externally imposed entity as the GOP claims. If Americans aren't happy with the job the government is doing they're free to vote it out on local and national levels.
17
Gee, who would have predicted that a profits-only privatized bridge would come up short of safety standards. This is proof positive that certain parts of government should not be privatized. But hey, this is only the opinion of one serf ...
37
The Italian train system works really well. Service is reliable, engineering is solid and infrastructure is maintained.
Why not merge Autostrade into Trenitalia and run it on the same financial model. Make a profit, but a limited profit -- require that 90% of tolls (or whatever metric is reasonable) go to maintenance and improvements.
11
The government was happy with their ever increasing share of tolls. This likely would have happened even if the bridge wasn't under private management. No one wanted to acknowledge there was a major design fault even after extensive corrosion was found in other bridges of the same design.
8
There is now widespread hostility in Italy against these privatizations.
One reason may be that, unlike Americans, we strongly believe that some basic services (roads, utilities, healthcare, trains..) are better-off in state hands than at the mercy of free market (and for the most part are still, to some extent, state-owned). Much like local trains for commuters are benefits for low-income workers as tickets are priced way under their actual cost, roads are a social service to promote people movement, they should not be subject to market rules. It’s not socialism, it’s not entitlements, it’s the basis of being a community, a society.
In addition, toll roads in Italy are insanely expensive, this is another reason why this huge tragedy is perceived as wrongdoing by conventional wisdom. Yesterday I drove 130 miles. I spent approximately €15 in gasoline. Tolls costed me almost twice as much. And that’s just a one-way trip. Such huge amount should provide for state-of-the art infrastructure and 1st class maintenance. Evidently, it does not.
Double checks on tariffs are not in place. Simple concession mandated covenants on maintenance expenditure are not in place. Double checks and segregations of duties are not in place. This costed us lives and destroyed 40 families. It should not happen in 2018, not in Italy, not anywhere.
31
This is what happens when essential services like transportation, water, electricity, schools, healthcare, essential services get privatized or are left to private forces. Why bother maintaining an infrastructure when it can be maximized to the brink. The only problem is when the brink topples and then the blame starts shifting.
14
I am waiting to hear the almost obligatory nonsense about how the private sector always does things better than the government.
People are dying because of greed. Not just in Italy, but right here in America. Some things the for profit private sector should not be allowed to touch. Bridges, prisons, and oh yeah, health insurance come to mind.
30
What is the Bennetton color for putting profit over public safety. Another colossal failure, perhaps even a lesson, in the privatization of public goods and spaces movement.
10
Even though the article notes the cause of failure is still TBD, the article clearly implies that if the state still owned the bridge the catastrophic collapse might not have occured.
Numerous examples worldwide over many years show that public ownership of critical infrastructure does not prevent disaster.
8
@EGD
However, from the article...
"Experts say that the inspection arrangement is unusual and that other governments require more oversight of privatized bridges and highways."...
Whether the problem is low budget neglect (common in this country) or special arrangements and the profit motive is essentially the issue.
7
I thought that this must be a bridge the size of the Golden Gate. This looks more like an overpass. The pics in the link seem to show really rotten concrete.
2
That's what happens when everything is privatized. Profits are maximized, corners are cut, and this is the result. Government has a role in building and maintaining infrastructure. It's time to stop demonizing Government and that other ' dirty word' called taxes.
19
Do readers here believe that before private companies built roads that the government operated a construction firm, owned the plants that created the steel and other components necessary, and also regulated itself?
The government is NOT in the business of construction. It is in the business of regulation and enforcement. Bridges must meet extensive (government written) regulations for weight, ability to stand up to winds, etc. etc. It is the government that enforces those regulations, and inspections. When you hire a company to build a bridge, enrich yourselves through payouts (so common in Italy and Greece as to be a joke), and then hire the same company to inspect itself, what could go wrong?
This is NOT about capitalism. It's about a complicit, lazy, bureaucratic government. That is Italy; and it's well known.
7
@Maime
There was a time in the USA when public works were created by the WPA (Works Progress Administration), CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), and other government jobs programs that employed construction workers, engineers, architects, artists, etc.
These organizations built interstate highways, bridges, tunnels, parks, and other infrastructure, that are still standing, still working, and still beautiful.
They were not without controversy. Robert Moses, for example rammed through many projects that were not always popular, but your statement that government never built stuff is not really true.
7
Privatization of infrastructure doesn't save taxpayers money, it just enriches the few connected ones. The costs are still borne by the people that depend on the structure or service and are paid one way or the other. When privatized that one way or the other also always means more.
26
The bridge was made with compressed concrete an advanced material that would last but with obvious needs. It required a measure of constant motioning. The €10 MM investment was I recall not enough. Witness the fact that similar bridges fell or were compromised in Sicily and I recall in other areas. The material after all these years is fragmenting and it is a warning to all civil engineers working for the government to inspect the infrastructure with this material. It would be good to see if the US used this material as well. I am sure they did.
13
@St. Thomas
Interesting pictures of a lot of residential buildings under the bridge. Living under a bridge - seems like a foolhardy idea.
In Italy, though, space is at a premium and Italians live anywhere, even at the feet of volcanoes.
There are pictures in the internet of the underside of the bridge while it was intact. A lot of decay or sketchy looking areas on the underside apparently.
I wonder if the area residents ever looked up and complained about the state of the bridge.
Sometimes our eyes are very good assessors of danger.
This is a wake up call for all of us to take our blinders off, and look at the things around us and complain, organize and take action when things aren’t right.
3
With a name like Mr. Bridges you would think he would have been more responsible.
12
Nice one! Or it’s too comical. Kinda like Michael Calamari. See what I did there? :)
4
Private business had a hand in the Minneapolis bridge collapse as well.
The Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty was business-friendly and had touted privatizing government services as a way to save money, as well as "starving the beast" of government in general. To reduce costs, he had his lieutenant governor job share as the head of the DOT - presumably because it was such an easy job. A year later the bridge fell with at least one inspector saying that the necessary inspections under the bridge were not being adequately performed.
The cause of the collapse was later blamed on a private firm's design flaw of using steel plates that were 1/2 as thick as they needed to be. - presumably to save money. But the commission also found that inspectors did not routinely check that safety features were functional, and there were errors made such as adding too much concrete to the decking, and placing 250 tons of construction equipment on the bridge when it collapsed.
When it comes to the safety of the general public, private industry time and again shows it is willing to cut costs, and Republicans' drive to defund regulation opens the door to tragedies.
39
Another example of how some things should not be for profit, medicine, prisons, infrastructure. Once the almighty dollar takes over people's needs and safety goes out the window.
42
The Benettons learned the hard way that although safety is expensive, try having an accident. 43 people paid with their lives for educating them on this matter.
13
@FilmMD
There goes their superior humanitarian image. Why is it that when there is money there are always smoke and mirrors.
5
For all of you socialists complaining about the evils of capitalism, I would argue that this is a fine example of the free market doing its job. If you didn’t think that the bridge that was provided was safe enough, you could find some other way to cross that chasm, every time you needed to. Perhaps this is an opportunity to disrupt the market: an airship which carries cars? Another bridge situated directly next to the first? The opportunities are endless if you just free your mind to think disruptively.
4
@Jonas Kaye
"The structure was built during the flush, postwar era"
There is a bridge in NYC that is almost 100 years older than the the Genoa bridge; i.e. the Brooklyn bridge, opened in 1883. It also carries a huge amount of traffic each day, with no evidence of structural problems. Are we to presume that 19th century technology was superior to post-WWII technology?
12
@Kenarmy That’s because they spend more than $10million over 3 years on maintenance and capital improvements.
6
@Jonas Kaye The article precisely contradicts your assumption showing the evils of unfettered capitalism and cronyism between for profit enterprises and the political class when it comes to services to the citizenry. Build another bridge of that magnitude with private funds? Please tell me where and when was this ever done. Infrastructure should remain public, owned by the public and independently inspected. Your comment equates me saying that: if you don’t think your food is safe enough, you could find an opportunity to create a complete parallel unchecked supply chain.
12
Forty years when I was in Italy the transportation system was unreliable as well as the mail was a wreck. Is this just par for the course?
5
Does the contract not have an out for “cause”? If not shame on the government (long gone). If so, it should be invoked due to negligence.
9
I am shocked, just shocked I say, that capitalism places the massive profits of a few over the safety of citizens. It’s shocking. I am shocked.
23
@Jonas Kaye We live in what I like to call a capitalistic dictatorship, there the almighty dollar rules with an iron fist, and pity anyone who gets in its way.
4
Most readers believe the bridge collapse is the fault of privatization, but there is no cause and effect relationship. No neglect, no altered inspections, no faulty materials. In fact, Autostrade had spent €10. million on repairs. Maybe the collapse was simply due to poor design. With regards to Autostrade’s “excessive profits,” this was classic big government in action. Sweetheart deals, lax oversight, and probable revenue sharing with officials. Government was the problem not the solution.
5
@mark
I guess further investigation and studies will eventually bring out the causes of this collapse. Maybe it's bad design, maybe it's poor maintenance. We'll see.
It's also difficult to evaluate if $10 M is enough for maintenance. As a comparison, presently in Montreal a new bridge is being built to cross the St. Lawrence River. Meanwhile, the old bridge (Champlain Bridge) has been the object of at least $100 M a year for the last three years for structural maintenance simply to make it last until the new one is opened. So, if the Genoa bridge had structural problems (it collapsed!) $10 M over three years sounds completely insufficient. That amount would barely suffice to redo the pavement. That is not real preventive maintenance.
12
@mark For a structure like that 10 million Euros would barely cover the paint let alone the deep x-ray of every inch of the construction as was really needed to find the hidden corrosion that was there due to the way the bridge was built, encasing the cables and structural elements in Concrete where they could not be visually inspected for corrosion.
10 million was cosmetic and fixed the bumps and potholes at the flexion points. Did nothing for the actual structural elements in question.
That is negligence covered by fresh paint, as it were.
12
The contract should be terminated, with the threat of a lawsuit. The trial would be held in Genoa where the residents witnessed the gruesome death of their fellow citizens. Autostrade would be found guilty with fines of $34 billion. $17 Billion to the families of those who died because of their negligence, and $17 Billion to rebuild the bridge and fund future maintenance.
This is a wake-up call to those who support trump. He would hand out sweet deal contracts like Autostrade’s to all his buddies like M&Ms if we weren’t paying attention.
23
In Italy, the people ultimately own the infrastructure. More precisely, a few people own the infrastructure.
In the United States, although we do not have a single family like the Benetton family owning so much of our infrastructure, we have plenty of examples of private ownership and control.
Even putting aside things like oil pipelines and ship docks, Americans have been persuaded to build public structures for private interests.
Consider the type of socialism whereby local and state governments impose special taxes on the public to construct enormous stadiums and arenas. The resulting ticket and concession sales feed profits to privately owned professional sports teams.
The NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL owners could write a book on the subject.
16
"Experts in the field said the relationship opened the potential for conflicts of interest."
This is a misunderstanding of what conflict of interest is. If there are two (or more) different interests that would pull a decision in different directions, the conflict is there, regardless of the fact that malfeasance takes place or not. The different interests will distort the judgment of the decision maker even if he/she (or it, in case of an organization).
4
Knowing that road I wonder where the traffic goes now .It must be a nightmare to go through Genoa. The Italian families of the northern textile industry are notoriously involved in historic abuse of workers to the point that in the 70's when that bridge was built, some had to flee the country to France because they literally had guns on their heads . And live their lives with body guards .We have a famous exemple in France . The Benettons pretended to be cool fashion democratizers but behind their Formula 1 racing and the "multi color " race marketing billboards they were ruthless factory slaves holders .People working 60 hours a week for spaghetti .
13
There are plenty of stories about the failure of infrastructure for both public and private sector facilities. With government it is typically financial strangulation due to a combination of underfunding and acquiescence by politicians to powerful and overpaid constituencies; the NYC subways are a perfect example. For private operations the strangulation is usually due to the operators' keeping too much money for themselves and starving the facilities of required maintenance, which works for a while but always leads to either slow motion or dramatic disaster. Either way the solution is to set up the operation with the right incentives to operate them well, with an unassailable revenue stream sufficient to insure they will be well operated and maintained, and with a tough inspection regime. And the general public has to accept that these things cost money and in the end there's no way around that fact.
5
@John Binkley Yes there is a way . Give it to private companies who pretend to do the job and take the public money because they have " relationships " with politicians . You know ...those that are voted to distribute that money .That is what is being done everywhere . Look at the state of infrastructure in New York . The L line, subway, Amtrak, bridges, roads .
5
I graduated with an electrical engineering degree decades ago. However, I did take some civil engineering courses. Just looking at that bridge, it looks like it was designed by a 10 year old with an Erector set (I don't think they make Erector sets these days, but they were a construction toy kit for kids in the 1950s).
One thing I learned from practice in engineering, you could either build things cheap initially, requiring a lot of maintenance during the service life, or, you could build things super sturdy that would last even if neglected for decades. Roebling built his suspension bridges, including the Brooklyn Bridge, to be sturdy and durable, even with decades of neglect. However, the bean counters and disciples of the discounted cash flow analysis took over the field, and now things are built cheaper, with greater maintenance requirements.
The problem with this approach is, once the infrastructure is in service, nobody wants to do the level of maintenance contemplated by the initial construction. So things are built cheap, inadequately maintained, and then they fall down unexpectedly into their service life. It happens over and over again.
27
I have to say the privatized freeways in France and Italy are for the most part in better shape than the non-privatized ones in Germany or the US. But the tolls they charge are insane. Even leaving aside the (high) cost of fuel it costs as much in tolls to drive 500 miles in France as it does to take the train.
If we have to add safety and maintenance issues to the costs, as we have to do in Italy, the owners of those highways should be shunned and shamed.
20
@Green Tea The highways paid by public funds and citizens taxes and built in the 60's and 70's by cheap labor from North Africa were given for 1 euro to private enterprises (Vinci, etc... ) who make colossal profits.
During the programs of privatisation from the 80s to 2005 .
France has the 4th highway infrastructure after the USA China and Germany.
That is one of the cause of the populist Gilet jaunes revolt because, on top of high gas prices, workers have to pay heavy tolls everyday to drive to their jobs and back .
You know...the socialist, communist France ...
8
“... the company effectively regulated itself — because Autostrade’s parent company owned the inspection company responsible for safety checks on the Morandi Bridge.” Good grief. The government doesn’t even do the inspections? I’ve often heard private companies and pro-business types rail against government intervention. But they sure are ineffective and dangerous when they are in charge.
9
@Jc
There are people who actually believe that the company inspecting itself is a good idea, as the company does not want its own bridge to fall down. This naive opinion ignores the fact that owners have built and maintained shoddy structures for ages, regardless of the fact that such structures fall down, burn up, or are otherwise subject to destruction.
6
If one could not make money there would be no reason for privatization.
Government is not for profit. If you want good infrastructure you need to pay fo it and government need to plan how to spend it.
11
When we're veering away from privatization in one of the largest purchases nationally, health care, speaks volumes about why it should not be used in infrastructure either. Government too can be as corrupt as a corporation but at least in a democracy there are checks and balances and oversight.
The places where these are being dismantled seem to be where the trouble begins. The biggest one to my mind causing eroding is austerity. It seems when it's used by a government, the social fabric becomes thin and allows commerce to make power grabs to cherry pick the profitable side of whatever is privatized and leaves the nasty bits for government to have to run, manage and fund all stunted by not having those profitable bits.
But one thing is for sure, austerity seems always imposed by those with wealth on others to take advantage in a vicious cycle. Privatization is just one technique to game the system.
Will it take the GOP privatizing the IRS to finally understand this?
11
When plunder becomes the organizing principal, power builds a legal system to authorize it and a moral system to glorify it.
12
Even with inspections and over site bridges still fail, in the United States bridges fail.
2
This is so not just an Italian problem.
I have been living in NY for over 26 years. To the best of my knowledge there has been no new infrastructural development in over a quarter century. Let me quote some examples. The Long Island Rail Road is a mess and its nice new shiny cars that I saw in 1993 are now filthy, run down and smell of beer. The Northern State Parkway hasn't been fixed for close to ten years and the entire length of it in Nassau County is an unsafe, pot-holed mess. The NYC subway is operating in unsafe tunnels with control systems so antiquated that they don't even make replacement parts for them anymore. 60 minutes this last Sunday highlighted the incredibly unsafe east coast Amtrak railway system. Local roads in the entire state of NY are a network of patched up ditches. Airports like LGA are a nightmare. Tax abated brand new high rise buildings built by wealthy consortiums are popping up all over the place in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Long Island City and the roads and subways servicing them are starkly decrepit in comparison. Meanwhile the NY MTA has a $14 billion annual budget and the state taxes are near the top in the nation.
I would like to ask the governors and representatives of NY, why does our infrastructure not get its share of money? And I would like to ask the current president, not where our 'wall' is, but where our trillion dollar plus infrastructure bill is....
23
Although I agree that the state needs more TLC in regards to infrastructure, it’s not as dire as you make it out to be. Structures are being rehabbed, they just take years to complete. LGA is being revamped as is Penn Station. New Tappan Zee (Cuomo), new Kosciuszko. There’s always work going on.
5
@Shahbaby
Thank you for pointing out how the USA has become like Italy. You might be interested, if not exactly comforted, to know that there are shiny new highways and highway renovations going up in the low-tax red states. Our senators have been bringing home the bacon for decades. What are your Northeastern senators doing?
3
@Loner
Those North-easterner's are paying for your's. This is thanks to the populace of the Blue states always paying for the red states.
15
This is what Republicans have been pushing for: Privatization of every aspect of public goods, so Godzilla-sized corporations can make giagantic profits, with no regard for the consequences to society.
Our own infrastructure is in mortal danger every day for a similar catastrophic collapse, but rather than properly address infrastructure as Democrats did under FDR and Republicans did under Eisenhower, all the Republicans and Trump have proposed is a system similar to Autostrade.
Look how well prison privatization has worked! (sarcasm intended)
This is a dire warning yet it is clear the administration, the responsible Secretary, wife to the Republican Senate Leader, and the Republican Senate, would STILL prefer only a Bennetton solution and will block any safer alternative.
15
Please take a look back at what Trump's Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao has proposed for corporate profiteering, oh sorry, I mean "investment." Roads, bridges, airports, air traffic control. Is there anything that's not on the table? We don't seem to have learned from our own disastrous forays into private prisons and private holding cells for refugees, could we please learn from Italy's disastrous mistake?
10
Privatization has a risk of being outrun by profit motive. However, public sections run by government agency or government-invested enterprises have the risk of inefficiency and bureaucracy. In Korea, most high ways are run by government enterprises which are full of corruption and politics. Some private public partnership roads are run by private project companies which enjoy excess profits. If privatized, it should be contractual arrangement with uses. However, government should hold rein over the operations.
2
How about this idea ? Publicly owned companies which by-laws which prohibit any concentration of ownership and require high levels of indemnity.
3
So everyone here blames the Benettons and privatization. And almost no one blames the design of the bridge, which was controversial since the day it began to be built. The bridge exhibited problems 2 or 3 years after opening in 1967. Do a bit of research before pointing fingers.
And no one here is familiar with or remembers the state of Italian infrastructure before much of it was privatized. A disaster. The current state of infrastructure in Italy (once on of the best in Europe, if not the world in the 50's, 60's and part of the '70s) has now crumbled to 3rd wold dimensions. And those that are not privatized...let's not even go there. And it is not only the roads, but airports, train stations etc. Blaming privatization is taking the easy way out and looking for scapegoats in the wrong place. Do you know how hard it is in Italy to dig a public ditch, much less carry out repair works? Always stall, stall stall, by political parties in the opposition ie the 5 Star the always torpedoes public works. And the permitting is a nightmare....
7
@Phil
The bridge collapse is not likely the fault of Benetton; as you state, the design was problematic from the beginning. However, the investigation following the tragedy has shed a great deal of light on the perils of privatizing public works and services.
3
@Phil Italy had the best infrastructure in the 50's and 60's ? Are you joking ? This bridge was part of the first modernisation programs that were obviously tied to the mafia and had architectural defects .It is highly surprising that it did not fall before.
Not with ignoring the fake maintenance management from a private industrial family known for its labor disrespect .
3
Privatization of toll roads in Indiana and elsewhere have resulted in bankruptcies and taxpayers on the hook.
14
Building roads and bridges should be an exclusively public sector operation- the same is true for ports, sewer and water systems, etc.
Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Milton Friedman are dead- let privatization go away as well.
26
No, No, No, do not privatize your infrastructure. Take responsibility for it and make it amazing. You are paying for it after all. Stay out of the privatization trap.
37
If you think bridges are the only infrastructure problem in Italy, think again. The non toll roads are a disaster, and I know of few countries with worse public streets. Where I live part of the year in Florence, the sidewalks are so ruined that several times I almost threw my kids from the stroller into the adjacent street on the way to school, not to mention the potmarked disaster in Rome that has been documented in the NYT...where do these road taxes go? Certainly not for the benefit of Italians outside of the Disneyland tourist centers...sounds like a certain tycoon family is reaping the benefits...
18
What’s worse about this “piratisation” is that people with technical skills are lost from government employ to the contractors. Governments then have no way to regulate, technical risk is not properly assessed...and then disaster.
20
It's funny to hear the disingenuous comments being made by Five Star since they, along with their partner party in The League, routinely voted against increased funding for infrastructure repairs in the years before they took control of government.
14
Privatization is one of the cornerstones of neo-liberalism. This fundamentalist free-market theory holds that profits are the greatest good. It's no wonder that it's such a popular theory with the 1%; the profits all wind up in their pockets.
After thirty five or forty years of this nonsense everyone else is just completely fed up.
Enough already!
27
Things like this are precisely why you cannot do mass privatization of public assets and infrastructure like national highways, prisons, and schools. There is too much price gouging and too little public accountability and oversight. Incentives shift and conflicts of interest become rampant. It is not in a private prison’s interest for a prisoner (i.e., a profit center) to be released. It is not in a charter school’s interest to take on low-performing students or those who require additional resources. Skimping on maintenance boosts the profits of private infrastructure companies—particularly when they face little to no competition when it comes to the routes commuters must take. Despite what capitalism-crazed advocates say, privatization is NOT the answer to every problem. Where public accountability and transparency are concerned it’s often a disaster. Just imagine having to submit a credit card number the next time you call 911...
46
The Benettons are living proof that North Italians are no better than their "terrone" counterparts in the South. Considering the 43 lives lost on or under the Morandi Bridge, the Benettons should go straight to jail, along with all the other participants were reaping the benefits of this financial arrangement. Hopefully this will have positive impact on public infrastucture world wide. And to quote the late Richard Feynman For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.
18
Always about the money Do the Italians view contributions of money to politicians as protected speech,or see it for what it is a bribe? A banking system collapses,a bridge collapses and no one goes to prison,but all continue with business as usual. Always ask first who benefits?
11
When you privatize a public good on which lives depend, the market will automatically correct for increased safety when there have been enough deaths. Sadly, for some people that's reasonable.
20
At the time, privatization was all the rage and Italy was under pressure to do so quickly--not least by the EU. The country's economy always developed under government participation (see IRI, ENI, etc.). This is what happens when the international community pressures countries to adopt economic policies that are antithetic to its traditions, which usually have a valid basis.
11
Italian autoroutes are expensive, a tourist without the windshield sticker stops every few miles to pay, and you are continually in a traffic jam. I travel from France eastward thru Germany just to avoid them.
7
@Jean louis LONNE similarly to French highways, though these ones are well-maintained indeed.
3
Some things are too important to leave to profiteers. Roads, healthcare, education, police and military, for starters. Profiteers have been successful corrupting governments to gain control over these precious functions. Time to stop and reverse that trend.
247
Absolutely. Prisons are another that shouldn't be privatized.
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@Bhj
...and the fire department, and garbage collection.
12
It was a systemic failure on the part of the Italian government to transfer safety inspection functions to a captive entity owned and controlled by Autostrade. Without the Italian government exercising an independent safety function, the collapse of a road bridge built fifty years ago is not so remarkable.
57
This is the issue anytime you privatize a public good.
In the US, we've got problems with:
-private prisons
-private health care (insurers/hospitals/big pharma)
-private military contractors
All end up providing substandard services at inflated cost to the taxpayer because they always cut costs to boost profits and are under-regulated by the government.
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@Matt You left out privatizing education - such as for profit charter schools. (Or, Trump University, anyone?)
The mission statement for "for profit" business is to make a profit. There may be other objectives involved, but they do not amount to much.
10
Yeah, and Trump had put Jared in charge of infrastructure. What a lewd farce!
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@Carl Ian Schwartz
What do you mean? I thought Jared was in charge of ME peace. Perhaps you are mistaken, and Ivanka is in charge of infrastructure. And Eric is in charge of something which made it necessary to travel to Peru. Don, Jr. is part of Huckabee's job as an explainer. It makes you wonder who is in charge of the hotel?
18
To paraphrase Jack Nicholson’s partner in the movie, “Chinatown”
“... Forget it jake, it’s Italy” . Chaos and corruption are the definition of Italian politics.
11
Don't feel safe in the US either. In fact any country. This is very flawed human nature but it it is not only an Italian trait.
11
The argument that privatization spawns improved efficiency and performance has always been spurious. As long as the firm's primary fiduciary responsibility is to shareholders, the public suffers.
The public interest can only be guaranteed with a diligent, impartial and potent regulator, which the electeds avowing privatization generally have no interest in supporting.
Legalized corruption like this is perhaps the most insidious form there is. It's deadly, boring to read about, and entirely legal.
27
The old “regulated itself“ disaster—
Leads to disasters.
[And taxpayers “shorn like sheep” was an apt metaphor.]
21
The people in the apartments are enjoying the quiet. It will be hard if they rebuild the bridge.
4
5,000 stores with over 8,000 employees around the world? That’s some serious overtime potential.
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@TOM
I was wondering the same. 1.6 people per store? -- not to mention designing, planning, and exploiting people around the world to produce and buy all that deliberate waste ...oh, I mean "fashion". Busy busy busy!
7
@TOM
A lot of these shops are run by self-employed, hence not on Benetton's payroll
2
It's a cruel irony that Mr. Ponti's name means 'bridges' in Italian.
13
I think of a friend here in NYC who owns several homes in Calabria
they state that the water supply to the village where they own these homes is controlled by one family who no one really knows, seems the country of my own father is both in the 15th century and 2019 , I can't imagine the impossibility of suing in an Italian court and the decades it will take for final verdicts.
I also know of another New Yorker inheriting a house from his grandparents in Italy ,that he wished he could sell ,the neighbors liked it just as it was empty,and filed in the courts that my friend;s parents house was illegally built on the neighbors land by 6 inches.
He consulted a lawyer, so did the neighbors ,his lawyer said they will sue the original surveyor who was found guilty of a form of malpractice ,however the surveyor had passed on to the almighty and therefore no one living was to blame.
he also found from the neighbors lawyers that he had to move all rear windows to frosted glass as their was a law that you could not look into someone's backyard.
After 12 years in and out of courts in his relatives town and even to Rome, he surrendered when his 3rd or 4th lawyer suggested he donate the home to the local church to get it off his hands, he did just that.
21
Troubled as the American system of governance is, it is comforting to note that so far we have not sold control of our highways and bridges to a family of sweater makers. When that happens, I will know the country is in real trouble.
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@Dan Frazier
If you don't think we are in real trouble right now, you aren't paying close enough attention.
Our problems might not be as obvious as a bridge collapse, but they are just as serious.
47
As compared to installing the Trump mob to run the entire country?
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@S B Yes, such as the prison-industrial complex, e.g., Correctional Corporation of America and Wackenhut.
17
What happened there should be a dire warning to us here.
Unfortunately we cannot depend on our bought and paid for elected officials. Unfortunately nothing will be done about our failing infrastructure until an event of the magnitude that occurred in Genoa happens on US soil.
24
Minnesota! already happened
21
@Antonio Borelli That happened when President Obama was in office though. No one remembers it.
1
I guess you remember it. Sweet dreams.
1
I was on this road when the bridge collapsed...about 15 mins away. We were rerouted into Genoa. People who lived in the apartments near the bridge were all out and looking over their balconies. That’s when I realized something tragic had happened.
14
Sounds like the deal the City of Chicago did privatizing street parking meters... "Chicago’s parking meter system raked in $134.2 million last year, putting private investors on pace to recoup their entire $1.16 billion investment by 2021 with 62 years to go in the lease, the latest annual audit shows. Of the three deals, the 2008 parking meter deal has been the biggest political nightmare for Emanuel, who inherited it, and for Chicago aldermen who granted lightning-fast approval of the deal." That is from the Chicago Sun Times
89
We have our own regulatory capture as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse described in his great book, “Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy,” in 2017. It didn’t start with Trump, though now he’s put on the finishing touches.
41
Oh? Really? A giant corporate family may have stolen money that would have been used to do upkeep on public infrastructure they had “earned” the right to control and manage...for the common good? Please forgive my sarcasm, for I am feeling a bit overdone with these ancient modes of belief. If privatization happens here we will deserve the pain and suffering that will come from the inevitable betrayal. Talking at you Donald.
40
Does the old DC Post Office ring a bell?
It's PontiGate with Emoluments
15
...and my first thought is that this is the poster child for similar U.S. ventures...
20
I live in Connecticut and the state’s society of civil engineers issued a report card that gave poor grades to the state’s infrastructure. Bridges and drinking water got a C-, roads and wastewater got a D , and rail got a B. Some of the state’s largest and most heavily traveled bridges are deemed “structurally deficient,” or in poor condition. Fortunately, funding has been allocated for former Gov. Malloy’s $100 billion, 30-year Let’s Go CT transportation plan through 2020, bolstered by $250 million in general obligation bonds. Unfortunately, 59 percent of the state’s bridges are over 50 years old and beyond their design life. Connecticut residents have known for a while that the state’s infrastructure is poor, but they hated Malloy because of the budget deficit and the ever-present threat of tax increases. While I prefer the state to carry out infrastructure improvements, it’s slow-going because paved streets and sound bridge supports don’t win elections. In October it’ll be the 35th anniversary of a gruesome accident on I-95 near the Bridgeport-Fairfield line that killed four people, one of whom I knew. A tractor trailer jumped the three-foot-high metal guardrail and crashed into two vehicles. It inspired the removal of the metal guardrails and installation of the concrete Jersey barriers. Why must there always be a tragedy to do the sensible thing?
53
@AlNewman To me, quality infrastructure is the clearest hallmark of good governance. We had it back in the 50's and countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and even China have it now. America's deteriorating infrastructure is indicative of creeping political governance failure.
28
@AlNewman, also the I-95 NB Mianus Bridge deck fell into the river in 1983, and it was found that inspections weren't done that would've seen the expansion joint deterioration from plugged drainage.
7
I'm sorry to hear about your friend. As an engineer in the highway field who has worked in the public and private sector the bottom line is that road and bridge maintenance just isn't sexy, at least from a politicians funding perspective. So sadly until something tragic occurs does public works/infrastructure get the fiscal attention it so desperately needs. Reactive maintenance is not something to strive towards. This country should be proactive in fixing issues before something tragic happens. An engineers job is to do just that. Sadly the funding scenarios don't allow us to do that and these tragedies continue. My advice, vote for politicians who find infrastructure maintenance important and worth funding. A red ribbon opening it might not be but a life saved it will be.
9
When has privatization ever succeeded at anything other than lining the pockets of a few well-placed predators?
298
Privatizing our infrastructure has been an idea floating around for a while now. Trump included it in his own campaign platform, as a way for private investment over government spending.
But just as there is a huge draw for corruption in government, there is a huge draw for profiteering in the private sector, especially when we have privatized a monopoly. Look at drug companies and cable companies for just how cost competitive private monopolies are. Sure: those are the guys I want providing me water.
I have never understood the almost religious belief that private enterprise - huge private enterprise if they are going to be owning highways and bridges - are more efficient than government entities. Doesn't anyone read Dilbert? Or ever worked for a gigantic corporatesaurus? They don't tap dance, folks.
I am fine with leaving the government responsible for government responsibilities. We can let the corporate gods continue to pillage in every other sector of the global economy.
157
It's a disgrace.
And no one from Autostrade or from the government is ever going to be help accountable.
And worse than that the roads are going to fall further and further into disrepair.
22
5,000 stores and only 8,000 employees? Very efficient.
19
@Warren - yeah, something is not right with number of employees...
5
@Roger@warren - many of the stores are franchised so employees are not in the Benetton headcount
1
Privatize the profits and then socialize the losses. Sadly this is the order of the day in many countries. When the center-right/right folks say they hate socialism, they are lying. They love this aspect of it.
Tragic, but perhaps another lesson we might finally choose to learn from? Perhaps.
143
None of this should come as any great surprise to those who know, understand and love Italy and its people. Italians are ungovernable. They not only despise and distrust governments, they distrust one another, and with good reason.
This tragedy, shocking because so many lives were lost, is only one in a historical procession of tragedies. Tragedies that will continue into the future, alas. In Italy's case, it matters not which side of politics is in power. Corruption and incompetence do not recognise party allegiances.
Consider the MOSE project that was intended to control the periodic inundation of Venice, the dreaded aqua alta. Twenty years and only God knows how many billions of euros spent, and zilch, nada, rien, niente! A generation of politicians of the left and right have enriched themselves over this boondoggle on a gargantuan scale. Oddio, e'viva Italia.
22
Oh Please...you think these kind of lies do not happen in your America ? It does !
With little effort, as a project contract administrator (architect), it was apparent the concrete strength reports were falsified, extensions of previous positive reports presented.
Contractors can be very creative reporting false information to protect their bottom line. It is CONSULTANT contractors who bear the lies as occurred in this case in a Wilmington hi rise some years ago.
7
Ken,
One of my uncles was an engineer on the Grand Coulee Dam in the late 1930s or early 1940s. His assignment was to check X-rays of welds and to substitute a different X-ray when he found a bad weld. After much agonizing (he had a wife and baby to support), he quit.
The more things change, the more they stay the same, as the French would say.
8
The idea that the private sector will better manage government functions will not go away no matter how many bridges collapse under private management. The reason is the profit motive. Selling off government property is a "religion" to the right wing all over the world. And like any religion its adherents are dissuaded by mere facts.
96
Every time I visit Italy I am struck by the expense of all those tolls we have to pay to get from city to city on the road system. They are everywhere and forget about trying to avoid going on the toll roads – it takes an eternity to travel any distance on the side roads. The thought that all that money is going to keep lining the pockets of the Bennettons until 2038 is outrageous. Their greed and negligence is a total wake up call against privatizing US roads and public infrastructure. If there's any justice I would have hoped that Autostrade should be punished very heavily financially and their lucrative contract to manage the roads until 2038 be terminated way sooner because of this disaster.
95
@julian Well, considering how resistant people are to tax increases, you should expect to keep seeing new toll roads in the US, too, including in California.
We are seeing the same phenomenon here in Australia, too: to avoid having to fund new infrastructure, the government entices private consortia, usually led by Australian investment bank Macquarie Bank (which I bet was the entity that considered taking a 10% stake in Autostrade as mentioned in the article, as Macquarie is well known for its global infrastructure portfolio), to build toll roads, tolled tunnels, etc. The contracts often specify ridiculously high profit margins. Then the tolls charged are so high that nobody uses the new infrastructure, making it a waste of money. The old crowded free roads remain as jammed as ever, except in Sydney, where the government blocked off a number of the formerly free alternative routes in order to force residents to use an expensive new tunnel. And worse, Macquarie et al then will normally complain that the government misrepresented how heavy daily usage would be (ie, misrepresented the likely toll revenue) and demand that the government compensate them for the missing profits. How is this more in the public interest than building open access infrastructure paid out of general revenue, even if we must endure a tax increase to pay for it?
23
In France highways have been given to the private sharks by Dominique Villepin for 1 symbolic euro. Now you pay 50 $ to drive 100 miles. Highways that had been financed by public funds and citizens taxes ! The restaurants, toilets, etc are disastrous.
of course there is a quality control on the roads because it is France. Engineers are not corrupt. But you can see there another success of capitalism.
Same story in Italy. Or worse.
24
This article is long but dramatically incomplete. Prof. Ponti is a controversial figure as his recent appraisal of the high-speed link with France shows; he is very close to the Five Star Movement. In turn, the Five Star Movement is against any sort of infrastructure spending. Some of their local members in Genoa, years ago, accused people who said the bridge was unsafe and could collapse to be sellouts to the construction lobby.
Very surprising that the NYT reporters did not deem important to mention these things.
29
Too much bunga-bunga at the Infrastructure and Transport Ministry. Whatever happened to "Made in Italy?"
4
'Follow the money'. Again, sadly. And this will be repeated here and we will all express surprise that this could have happened. 'How?'
Let corporations run wild and this is what you get and we have let our wonderful 'private sector' corporations take over our government. With their bribes, er, 'campaign contributions'.
31
Textbook corruption on a massive, criminal scale. Autostrade people should be thrown in jail, for a very long time. They can stay warm with $1000 wool blankets. But, it was ultimately the government's responsibility to negotiate a contract in the public interest, to regulate them and assure safety and they failed. They can go to jail, too.
This situation, though on a grand scale, shows the folly of privatising public goods. The contractor answers to their shareholders, or who ever controls the money. They don't answer to the public. And since the government, in this case a notoriously corrupt one, is well-paid by the private contractor, they have every reason to be soft on them.
But Italy's biggest problem is that the Italian people don't take government seriously. Look at the people they elect. Look what those leaders do. (Interesting to note it was a left-wing government that tried to make the system more accountable, and an anti-regulation, pro-business right-wing government that had different priorities. Typical.) But until Italians wake up and demand a capable and accountable government, instead of treating the whole thing like a joke, the country will certainly fall well-short of its huge potential, if not become an outright basket case.
65
The company is quoted as saying that they spared no expense for safety, maintenance, and repair of a bridge which then collapsed. Either they are lying or they are incompetent; either way they should be stripped of their concession.
196
@Richard Schumacher Agree. And I don't buy the assertion at the end that if the state terminated the contract, they would still need to pay Autostrade out the remaining contract payments ($17 billion or thereabouts). Autostrade must be in breach of the terms of its concession, which presumably would entitle the State to terminate for cause. There would have to have been gross negligence in the contract drafting and approval process for the State to agree to a contract where they would have to pay out even when terminating for cause.
27
This is what privatizing of infrastructure produces. We already know how it affects the justice system when prisons go to the one with the best political connections.
Corporations have no concern for the citizens, governments supposedly do or at least should in theory. That’s the point of government, to protect the citizens.
Notice that it was when the leftist party was in charge it was the only time that the politicians were concerned about this arrangement. The right acts like the right in every country, always puts business over people.
206
Not too far from the American system, in which individual government workers can leverage their regulatory experience into far more lucrative positions within the industries they formerly "regulated". After all, who would better know how to evade regulations?
27
Selling the administration of public highways to a private company AND THEN allowing that same private company to control inspections and reporting on the safety of roads and bridges - does that sound like a good idea to YOU, ladies and gentlemen? I can only say that while I lived in Italy from 1989 - 1996 and love the country dearly, this is precisely the sort of epic failure that only Italy seems capable of producing. Now while an endless stream of bureaucrats investigates this tragedy which will go on for years, the highway remains cordoned off and attempts to restore the span haven't even begun yet. So it goes in the arcane world of Italy and Italian politics. "The more things change, the more they remain the same".
44
Only Italy? Really? Trump is doing the exact same thing throughout our government. Wake up!
27
I've driven all over Europe -- Norway to Sardinia, Ireland to Romania -- and the Italian roads are definitely the most expensive of any country. Inefficient toll stations everywhere, usually with lines of CO2-spewing cars and trucks, while people search for a few coins to throw into the basket. Inefficiency at its worst.
One would think that with all the money the Benetton family takes in, they could at least provide decent and safe roads. Germany, Spain and Portugal do it for free; Austria and Switzerland do it for a nominal cost.
I was planning a trip to Apulia, but now I'm re-thinking it as I remember all the horrible toll both and lines of traffic in Italy. Maybe Romania instead this spring.
41
@Eddie Not so many roads in Romania . Just one autoroute . 200 km long.
6
@Eddie
Please get your facts straight. Spain has many toll roads. Just try driving from Barcelona to Valencia, or from Barcelona to Bilbao. You'll pay about the same fee per kilometer as on Autostrade.
7
@JD yes of course. In France too. In Switzerland you have to buy a "vignette " ( you get a big fine if you did not buy it ) and in Germany they just passed a toll for foreigners. . I am always doubtful of those Americans who know everything about Europe and in fact know nothing. They have been once in Marbella and they =know Spain like the back of their hand. Or 3 days in Venice and they know Italy. Eddie is rather a British name may be...
6
The bridge tolls made money for everyone: the private owners and shareholders..the government also.
However no one thought to set aside money for repairs or replacement of the bridge? Bridges don’t last forever without costly upkeep and replacement.
It’s easy for private companies to buy utilities and infrastucture and milk them as much as possible.
But what happens when the asset has aged and needs enormous investment?
The private owners shrug and walk away and tax payers have to pick up the pieces.
114
@Georgia M
The Bay Bridge between the East Bay and SF recently had to replace cheap ingots from China, and hire steel workers to train workers. The cost for all the repair and redo would have been avoided if a competent individual had been in charge. When I used to drive from Berkeley to SF, I assumed the tolls were used to maintain the bridge. Later commuted from Marin to SF and paid tolls on the GG Bridge; assume the tolls are dedicated to maintenance, rather than to the profiteers who "manage" the Bridge. A recent news article mentioned the Saudis were offering to buy public roads, install tolls which they would collect for maintenance, and for unspecified profits. No doubt they are busy flattering Trump and bribing Jared. How did we fall this low?
1
The Trump administration infrastructure plan is to privatize the U.S. national infrastructure so that global corporations can charge us tolls and fees forever.
This bridge collapse is a warning. Heed it.
372
@McGloin
I hope Gov. Murphy in NJ reads this article and your comment.
20
That's what I was going to say. The future of the U.S. infrastructure strategy, per " we're capitalist's, that's just the way it is."
18
they could fine the company $17 billion and take back control of the bridge
this shows capitalism at its finest
no competition, power and profit
59
This reminds me of Silvio Burlisconi. One of my favorite Italian meals is Pasta Putanesca which got it's name during WWII when the government took care of everything including shipping food to the then legal cat houses. Then they fed their customers over the weekend and that is how their pasta got it's name. BTW when one of the Italian Popes sent his daughter to the French Court to find a rich husband, she could not stand the horrid French food and sent for her chefs and the French learned how to cook with all the great sauces with spices.
8