By Swift
Despite the media’s attempts to blame the collapse of the I-5 bridge in northern Washington on issues of poor infrastructure development, a little birdie told us here at the EF! Newswire that there was something more to the tale. So we dug around, and sure enough, the I-5 collapse was caused by a megaload-baring truck carrying a part of a house across the bridge.
These megaloads are commonplace on a lot of highways, although their weight makes them a formidable opponent to the highway system—particularly roads in more far flung areas of the country. One particular example of the tremendous problems caused by megaloads is occurring in Idaho, where Wild Idaho Rising Tide is trying to stave off tar sands infrastructure from taking its toll on the wild and beautiful highways that trace through places like the Rocky Mountain Front and the gorgeous Blackfoot valley along Highway 200 made famous by the film A River Runs Through It.
The problem is not the crumbling infrastructure—the problem is the megaloads, the system of commerce that burns through fossil fuels as though climate change didn’t exist, and the corporate robber barons that deflect any and all criticism of business as usual onto more development, more development, more development. Industrial civilization might be bringing down its own infrastructure, but hey, it wouldn’t hurt if it had a little help from some friends from time to time.