Lawmaker wants state's bridge scores

August 7th, 2007, posted by LVDem

A Democratic House committee chairwoman is upset with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials for refusing to release numerical inspection scores for 54 steel deck truss bridges in Pennsylvania.

Rep. Babette Josephs, D-Philadelphia, wants state Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler to come before her committee today and explain the numerical scores — ranging from a low of 0 (meaning very poor condition) to a high of 9 (excellent) — for each steel truss bridge, the same design used for the Minneapolis Interstate 35W bridge that collapsed last week.

PennDOT has refused to release its internal numerical ratings of the bridges, a step that Ms. Josephs labeled as “paternalistic.”

In a letter to Mr. Biehler Friday, she said, “In light of recent developments in Minnesota, the decision of PennDOT to withhold information in such a paternal manner is disturbing.”

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Those numbers should be

On August 7th, 2007 piltdownman said:

Those numbers should be released immediately. There is no compelling reason not to let legislators and the public (the ones who pay for and use the bridges) know what they are dealing with and in just what pathetic shapes our bridges are in.

Make you wonder what PennDOT is hiding?

And “paternalistic” is a nice word for what really is nothing more than and outright attempt to cover one’s arse.

Pilt

The rankings will be released

On August 7th, 2007 Anonymous said:

That was just posted on the P-G. Frankly, I don’t care because I’m sure all that will result is a lot of yammering and posturing about “who shot John”.