Inspector America

There's a show on Sunday nights on the history channel called Inspector America. This guy travels around the country looking at the crumbling infrastructure. Personally, I find it interesting, and scary.
Anyway, next Sunday is the final episode of the season and I believe he's going to be spending an hour looking at the infrastructure of Detroit.

If you're interested in the state of the infrastructure of America like I am [[Yeah I know) you might enjoy this. Just remember, he's not picking on Detroit, he's taking a critical look at the whole country. I couldn't believe how bad Seattle is.

Another show trashing Detroit, can't wait...

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Originally Posted by tvaspen

Another show trashing Detroit, can't wait...

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If you have ever watched the show, you know that it's about more than "trashing Detroit". The guy knows his stuff, and he's making an honest effort to highlight the shortcomings in our national infrastructure [[which, quite honestly, is in a shambles at best). It makes you wonder where the hell our priorities lie.

With that said, there are some positive aspects of the show too. For example, a waste-to-energy plant in Minnesota that provides power to the Twins baseball stadium.

I think it's a good thing for someone to point out how our nation is falling apart while we send money to countries that hate us and get nothing in return [[except the harboring of national enemies like in Pakistan, and the propping up of dictators like in Egypt).

Country first, world second.
It's not an evil philosophy.

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Originally Posted by Papasito

I think it's a good thing for someone to point out how our nation is falling apart while we send money to countries that hate us and get nothing in return [[except the harboring of national enemies like in Pakistan, and the propping up of dictators like in Egypt).

Country first, world second.
It's not an evil philosophy.

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Foreign aid comprised a whopping 1.7% of the United States federal budget in 2010 [[approximately $51 billion). According to ASCE, it would cost $2.2 TRILLION over the next five years to get our infrastructure into a state of good repair. Do the math.

For what it's worth, his take on the water level in Lake Mead near Las Vegas was filmed too early. Heavy snowpack this winter upriver will have Lake Mead rising an estimated 32 feet by September. It was a wet winter, sorely needed.

I've put the Lake Michigan pipeline away for the time.

Ray, I have a suggestion on where you can store that pipe.

Hey, if you use the infrastructure you better expect to pay for it, fella. Don't expect the people who made out like bandits under Reaganism to ante up any more than you and maybe less since a lot of them have their own airplanes.

It doesn't keep me up at night, but I don't mind knowing about the infrastructure in my area.


The average dam inspector in the US is responsible for more than 400 dams. The ASDSO recommends that each inspector is responsible for fewer than 50 dams.
In Rhode Island, there is one dam safety inspector for all of the state’s 600 dams. Many dams in America have outlived their usefulness, and about 10 percent have no known owner.

If some guy wants to travel around the country and do some inspecting on the private sectors dime, what can that hurt.

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Originally Posted by gnome

Ray, I have a suggestion on where you can store that pipe.

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Ain't that bad, gnome. We weren't gonna hassle you over the Asian Carp and just take whatever came in.

Blast and fill the California Aqueduct and AZ & NV would be a lot better off.

Here's some math, how much have we spent to blow up and rebuild other countries?

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Originally Posted by Meddle

Blast and fill the California Aqueduct and AZ & NV would be a lot better off.

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If we did that, the avacado crop would wither and die. Then where would you get your guacamole from?? :)

Same place as all the other produce --- Honduras, Guatemala, Chile'

What pisses me off is why hasn't infrastructure repair and maintenance kept up when we are supposed to be paying taxes for just that?

The same with the electrical grid upkeep. Why do I get charged for the maintenance but yet the hydro companies haven't done their diligence?

Perhaps if we stop pissing money away into thenanny state we would have money for the basic needs of North America.

I think most of those whom are responsible for the maintenance of our infrastrucure simply have the philosophy of........"If it works, don't fix it."

Works for me on computers.

He indicated he was denied access to inspect Warren's water infrastructure. He expressed outrage that public infrastructure wasn't made available for inspection.

Although he didn't name Warren specifically on the show, he said he was in a city "just outside of Detroit" with "nearly 140,000" residents. Only one city fits that bill! Also, the shot was done in front of Warren City Hall. He indicated that Warren was the third largest city, but for some reason they bleeped out the word "third".

It was interesting to have my city featured on the show!

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Originally Posted by ghettopalmetto

Foreign aid comprised a whopping 1.7% of the United States federal budget in 2010 [[approximately $51 billion). According to ASCE, it would cost $2.2 TRILLION over the next five years to get our infrastructure into a state of good repair. Do the math.

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coincidentally, 2 trillion is about what we've spent in the first ten years of our never ending wars.

Saw the show last night, good take on what the city needs to fix in relation to info structure. He went to investigate the cause of 2010 firestorm from the citizens to Detroit Fire Dept. and DTE Energy, He saw some freeway overpasses, many along I-94 he considers most them to be shot, and went over to see the work being done on M-39 bridges. Visited a Detroit Water Dept. pipe replacement site. Got to see Charles Pugh from Detroit City Council about the demo of Ford Auditorium considers it a sick building. Lastly, he saw Ford Motor's Wayne Assembly plant's solar energy electric system.

The bridges over I-94 that are "shot" are those between I-96 and Conner Ave. That's the stretch that was being bandied about as being expanded to 4 lanes in each direction. All the other birdges along I-94 [[in Detroit and suburbs) have been rebuilt.

They have done some repairs on some of those shot I-94 bridges... I remember them taking part of the Van Dyke overpass off and replacing it... but not the entire bridge.

It would be a waste to rebuild all those bridges if they were going to be replaced by a widened freeway. But in these tough economic times... how likely is that??

And speaking of freeway repairs... can someone explain why there are about 40 identical MDOT trucks continuously parked along I-94 in St. Clair Shores where they are doing median and drainage work?? They have just been sitting in the same spot [[about 200 ft. apart from each other) for many months.

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Originally Posted by Gistok

And speaking of freeway repairs... can someone explain why there are about 40 identical MDOT trucks continuously parked along I-94 in St. Clair Shores where they are doing median and drainage work?? They have just been sitting in the same spot [[about 200 ft. apart from each other) for many months.

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Oh.....that's where I left them! Thanks!

So how was the show? I was up north in a cabin walleye fishing for the weekend. Missed it.

Oh, God. Watching stupid TV or being up north in a cabin walleye fishing? No contest. You're my kind of guy, old guy, and an old guy myself.

For what it's worth, his take on the water level in Lake Mead near Las Vegas was filmed too early. Heavy snowpack this winter upriver will have Lake Mead rising an estimated 32 feet by September. It was a wet winter, sorely needed.

Indeed it has been a wet spring up in the Rockies as well, we got hammered with snow going out and rain coming back on the weekend. At our visit to the Hoover Dam, we learned that an eleven year drought has lowered Lake Mead by 65 feet. If the level goes up 32 feet this spring, that will go halfway to restoring normal levels.