And you know that how ?

The editorial in the Aug 9 issue of the Recorder about the Bridge Collapse ended with a claim that bridge building is not exactly ‘Rocket Science’, my answer is “And you know that how” ? When did you last design a bridge or a rocket — as an engineer for over 30 years, the son of an engineer who was the son of a mechanic – I have done some of both, and you have no idea of the complexity of either. I aim this comment at the editor but more at politicians and political strategists who believe in leadership by ‘press release’ or ‘grand solutions’ – political ideas that have not stood the test of time. Bridges do that – but not by magic – by an intense design AND regular maintenance AND design correction – yes, correction. Anyone who knows engineering knows good designs evolve, and are improved and corrected by experience, just like nature. And yet, our politicians (and too much of the public) expect to take a stand or write (NOT design) a law and never change it. Yes, we have been building bridges for a few thousand years, (there are Roman roads to prove it) – but those don’t maintain themselves – they need support from a government infrastructure committed to the hard and boring work of maintenance, and I mean the political work not the physical work, work of leaders. I have seen lots of editorials complaining about the various government failures because of the bridge collapse and the Big Dig problems BUT few promote raising the funds required – yes gas is expensive but it is worth the extra 5 cents per gallon to have safe roads AND fix all those in western mass now closed. Perhaps the real rocket science is leadership.