Quote Originally Posted by Jason View Post
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Or you can hold up Moroun as the shining example of private infrastructure. The Ambassador Bridge is private from construction to today and it's not even 100 years old and it's crumbling.
The important part of the bridge is steel. Concrete [[which crumbles) wears out -- and gets replaced. Its like your clothes. You expect limited life. And you change them when they wear out.

I not aware of any information on deterioration of the structural components of the Ambassador Bridge.

I think its likely that the Ambassador bridge will be standing long after the new bridge crumbles [[but with new concrete road surfaces every dozen years or so).

[[I'm not a structural engineer nor expert in bridges, and would be interested in hearing an expert opinion.)
Quote Originally Posted by Jason View Post
The contractors and engineers don't change their work based on where the check is coming from. They do what they get paid to do.
No, but they are asked to do different work to different standards depending on the project. A government project is likely to spend more money on non-essential items, for example. Governments usually have wage and work requirements that are more limiting, with restrictions on who can do what work, and at what wages. Private contracts today might prefer efficiency over, say, workforce diversity. An entirely private bridge would not have any [[US) prevailing wage rules, and might pay the worksite cleanup crew less than a publicly funded bridge. Not arguing that one is better than the other, but they are quite different. Of course at this scale there's a near zero chance for private projects. [[Maroun is exceedingly rare. He has the motivation of monopoly protection as well as proven cash flow.)