Just what the beleaguered Metro Area needs right now, a major highway shut down for days...possibly weeks. Apparently, last night around 8pm, a tanker carrying approximately 13,000 gallons of fuel was in an accident, and just happened to be under the overpass for 9 mile rd. Of course, it blew up, and burned the overpass for hours. The picture above is from the Detroit News, and shows the damage done to the overpass. Amazingly, no one was killed or even seriously injured in this debacle.

My question is who pays for something like this? We know that the bridge is going to have to be totally replaced. Some estimates I am hearing about are in the neighborhood of 2-3 million dollars. Does this come out of MDOT's rapidly shrinking budget, or is it paid for through the drivers insurance? It would piss me, and I imagine a lot of other people off, if tax dollars have to fund this repair. Given the state of the roads I drive to work every day, especially US-23, northbound from I-96, I know we could definitely use that money elsewhere.