A recent analysis ranks Iowa as having the ninth worst infrastructure in the country.
The state’s rural county bridges may be what spurred the poor rating by content and analysis company 24/7 Wall St, according to Aaron Granquist, a project manager who’s overseeing the state’s upcoming infrastructure report card.
“You’ll see a sign leading to one of these rural bridges that says you can’t go over this with more than 10,000 pounds or whatever," he says. "So that’s some of the way of trying to reduce the risk associated with those bridges. But you know, you really need to make sure that the funding gets to the county level.”
On this news buzz edition of River to River, Granquist tells host Ben Kieffer that while the increase in the state’s gas tax in 2015 will help fund improvements, it’s not enough to keep up with what he calls decades of deferred maintenance.
Other segments on today's program include: an interview with political scientist Chris Larimer of the University of Northern Iowa about politics at the Iowa State Fair, a conversation with Gazette columnists Adam Sullivan and Steve Berry about the more than 300 newsrooms who posted editorials speaking out against President Trump's criticism of the media on Thursday, reactions from Bishop Richard Pates of the Diocese of Des Moines regarding recent reports of sexual abuse within Pennsylvania-based Catholic churches, and a conversation with Des Moines Register reporter Linh Ta about her reporting into an Iowa forest where dozens of dogs have been abandoned by their owners.
