Just as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was complaining to members of the media that his caucus will not negotiate an infrastructure bill with the White House until the Biden Administration defines what “infrastructure” means, a pedestrian bridge spanning a six-lane highway through Washington, DC collapsed Wednesday, injuring at least five people and causing a major traffic issues in and around the nation’s capital.
The Washington Post reports that the walkway, which spans DC Route 295, also known as the Anacostia Freeway, I-295 or the Baltimore-Washington Parkway before it enters the District, collapsed onto a truck that was traveling under it. The collapse happened at around 11:50 a.m. ET and may have been the result of a vehicle collision on the highway, although it is unclear if the collision was the cause or the result of the walkway collapsing.
The walkway, which connected the Kenilworth and Deanwood neighborhoods in Northeast DC, was one of the few ways pedestrians could cross the busy six-lane highway. At least five people were taken to local hospitals, with officials saying none of the injuries being life-threatening.
Later Wednesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy started his weekly press briefing, during which he lamented the lack of an infrastructure planning bill, claiming that the House GOP will work “with anyone” to produce a bipartisan plan. The White House presented the American Jobs Plan back in March as a way to shore up American infrastructure, but no Republican has yet to support the bill, claiming that it directs funding to non-infrastructure-related programs, like workforce infrastructure such as health care, child care and education.
“We would like to have a bipartisan infrastructure plan,” McCarthy said, perhaps as rubble from the pedestrian bridge collapse was still bouncing along DC 295. “But the first thing we need to do instead of talking about how much money you would spend: define what infrastructure is. Roads, bridges, highways, broadband, electric cars. We can do all that.”