We can’t have a strong country without strong infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Josh and Vanessa Ellis and their 8-month-old son Hudson were killed after debris from a highway overpass in Bonney Lake, Washington fell onto their pickup truck<\/a> as they were driving through.<\/p>\n According to authorities, a large piece of concrete barrier fell from the overpass onto the Ellis’ truck. The overpass was undergoing a construction project at the time.<\/p>\n The tragic deaths of Josh, Vanessa and Hudson Ellis are yet another reminder that US infrastructure is literally crumbling.<\/p>\n Take our nation’s bridges and tunnels for example.<\/p>\n Right now, there are over 600,000 bridges in the US that have been labeled as “structurally deficient.”<\/p>\n In 2007, a bridge collapse on I-35 in Minneapolis killed 13 people and injured 145 others.<\/p>\n In 2013, a bridge on I-5 in Washington State collapsed, sending three people plunging into a river. Luckily, they were all rescued.<\/p>\n And, in 2006, a section of concrete ceiling panels in Boston’s Fort Point Channel tunnel fell on a car, killing a passenger in that car and severely injuring the driver.<\/p>\n But it’s not just our bridges and tunnels that are in disrepair.<\/p>\n