Four days after the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minnesota, the photos and videos of that catastrophic event still seem like something out of a Hollywood movie. Forty-year-old interstate highway bridges aren&8217;t supposed to just fall down in real life.

This tragedy serves as a wake-up call to America. We have to adequately maintain our aging bridges and other infrastructure.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimated in 2005 the cost of sufficiently maintaining our nation&8217;s bridges at $9.4 billion per year over the next 20 years. It estimated it would cost $1.6 trillion over a five-year period to bring all the nation&8217;s infrastructure, such as bridges, roads and dams, up to good condition.

To help meet that challenge, motor fuel tax dollars have to be spent as intended, not diverted to other parts of the budget as Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has done. And at the federal level, instead of appropriating tax dollars for pork-barrel projects and bridges to nowhere, lawmakers need to ensure that the money goes to essential, priority projects. …

Building and maintaining roads and bridges are among government&8217;s legitimate functions. It&8217;s time to concentrate on the basics.

&8212; Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat, Aug. 5