Mike Lindblom, transportation writer for “The Seattle Times,” recently wrote on article on Barry LePatner’s new book “Too Big to Fall: America’s Failing Infrastructure and the Way Forward”. The article, entitled “‘Too Big to Fall:’ the hazardous health of America’s roads and bridges“ highlight’s the nation’s denial regarding the state of its infrastructure, noting “Elected officials crave the fame of cutting the ribbon on a new highway, rather than maintaining an old bridge.”

Linblom’s article notes that some politicians have awakened to the crisis, which makes "'Too Big to Fall’ a timely book.” In the mean time while the crumbling continues with America’s infrastructure, the article endorses LePatner’s urging of states to install strain gauges, weight scales, cameras and corrosion sensors to gather bridge data around the clock, instead of trusting sporadic visual inspections.

For his Seattle readers, Lindblom notes that even in the “enlightened Washington state,” only about $1.1 billion of the $9 billion 2011-12 transportation budget goes directly to highway preservation or maintenance.” Lindblom advises, “Washington state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond suggests a quota for maintenance in the next round of Washington state transportation taxes — even if fewer new lanes are built. Until then, this book offers professional and armchair engineers a wealth of history to place future road failures in perspective.”

Mr. Lindblom’s article is another example of the need for spreading the word and sounding the alarm regarding the nation’s failing infrastructure. The fear of cost overruns should not doom infrastructure projects, where there exists a methodology to eliminate these concerns. The LePatner C³ Model allows owners to regain control of their projects and re-balance their relationship with the contractor by obtaining, for the first time, true complete-price contracts with those building their projects.