Deferred Maintenance

While Minnesota investigators seek reasons for the Minneapolis bridge collapse, the tragedy should be a reminder to Kansas City's elected leadership that repair of the city's aging infrastructure must be its top priority.

In Kansas City, it's not only bridges, but the water and sewer system. The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the city to present a plan by next summer to repair the city's decaying sewer system. The federal agency says the system is in such disrepair that the entire water supply could be jeopardized. Repair costs could run into the billions of dollars.

Too often in the past, Kansas City's leaders have funded shining new monuments to their legacy, instead of dealing with the unglamorous but necessary task of maintaining the systems citizens depend upon for their health and safety. The lesson that Minneapolis should have taught us is that deferred maintenance of a city's infrastructure can have tragic consequences.