Killing The 'Can Do'

A couple of weeks ago I returned from a wonderful vacation on Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The relaxed pace, the salt pans, the starry nights, the superb beaches, the Taco truck and a great summer house filled with family and close friends was just what my doctor ordered.

On my way in I tipped my hat to Orville and Wilbur as we motored past Kitty Hawk and on my way back, we drove across the majestic Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. It was a drive, in short, that featured two moments in American “can do:” one great, that changed the world, and one that’s really good.

The Wright Brothers need no encomiums from me. Their star is so well established that the heirs to their genius are busy working on ways to fly to it. On the other hand, the good bit of can do that is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is less heralded.

The 23-mile span connects the Delmarva Peninsula to Norfolk, Virginia. Not long after it opened in 1964, I crossed it in the back of my family station wagon. A second two-lane bridge running parallel to it was added in 1999. At two points the bridge plunges beneath the Bay into two separate mile-long tunnels. Through my childhood eyes it felt like we were driving across the ocean.

The Bridge-Tunnel carries US Highway 13 across the lower Chesapeake Bay. It took 42 months and $200 million to build the first bridge/tunnel, the sister bridge/tunnel took 46 months and $250 million. In both cases no taxes were used, the money being raised by the sale of revenue bonds.

If only we had that same sense of "can do" today. When it comes to improving American transit or adding a modern rail system all we hear today is “no can do.” Critics citing figures and position points gathered by extreme right think tanks say high speed rail is elitist; lacks political and popular support; won’t work in the U.S.; and is neither necessary nor a boon for the environment. An American Public Transport Association (APTA) report goes to great lengths to show what canards these and other attacks are.

When the Obama administration came to power, the president proposed high speed projects in 13 intercity corridors around the country connecting important “economic centers at a distance of 100 to 600 miles.” The original $53 billion investment was said by labor advocates to have the clout to create 1.3 million jobs and would alleviate the increasing traffic on highways, in the skies and improving air quality. All of this becomes especially urgent when you consider that the population of the United States is expected to add 100 million more people in the next 30 years.

The APTA report cites California’s Highspeed Rail Authority as saying its proposed “high-

speed train system (connecting Anaheim and San Francisco in 2 hours and 40 minutes) would lower the number of intercity automobile passengers on highways by up to 70 million annually. What’s more, it will cost less than half the amount of expanding freeways and airports to meet future intercity travel demand and would eliminate the need to construct 3000 lane miles of highways, 91 airport gates and five additional airport runways.”

Citing American Society of Engineer estimates, Connecticut U.S. Congressman Jim Himes (D) says it’s going to take about $3.6 trillion between now and 2020 just to keep our basic transit infrastructure up to date.

“Consider the appalling state of our crumbling roads, bridges and railways," he says. “It is unacceptable that my constituents all too often find themselves delayed by Metro North or traffic on Interstate-95. Today, 35 percent of Connecticut's bridges are obsolete or structurally deficient, and 41 percent of the state's roads are in poor condition. This threatens our safety, siphons money from household budgets, and cuts into precious time we could be spending with our families or at work.

“Why did this happen? Because as a nation, over time, we have not invested the resources needed to build a 21st century infrastructure. Instead, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on foreign wars and unpaid-for tax cuts.”

My father loved the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, loved its can-do moxie and all it stood for in a generation of Americans who enjoyed taking the big shot. That may be why they’re called the “Greatest Generation.” I wish I could say the same for my generation; a generation that time and again by-passes great achievement so that we can keep it cheap. All we hear from our politicians is “no can do.”

We keep hearing that America is too divided to do great things. Funny, Abraham Lincoln was able to launch work on the Transcontinental Railway while fighting a Civil War. It kind of makes you wonder how the current crew in Washington would respond to JFK’s challenge that we put a man on the moon in 10 years.