Brian P. McGuire, president and CEO of Associated Equipment Distributors, issued the following statement regarding the situation around Northern California’s Lake Oroville and a new study by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association that found nearly 56,000 bridges across the country are structurally deficient.
“On behalf of AED, our thoughts and prayers are with the citizens and first responders of Northern California as they deal with the terrible situation around Lake Oroville. For those that don’t live in the areas impacted, the crisis should serve as warning to all of us. Years of underinvestment in our nation’s infrastructure have forced all American’s to rely upon structurally deficient dams, spillways, levees, bridges, and tunnels, putting at risk public safety and welfare.”
“We know our nation’s infrastructure continues to crumble, yet our leaders in Washington put off tough decisions to the detriment of the American people. When will Congress worry less about their reelections and more about the lives that are at risk due to decades of woefully inadequate infrastructure funding? Today it’s a dam in California, tomorrow it could be a bridge in South Carolina or a tunnel in New York. Make no mistake about it—failure to lead in Washington is leading to an infrastructure system on life support and putting people in harm’s way.”
