Last week's Amtrack tragedy in Philadelphia provided a poignant reminder of the importance of infrastructure.

"Infrastructure is a famously unsexy subject," noted the News Tribune. "No one’s interested in trestles, railroad ties, bridge decks and the like. Until something breaks."

The paper goes on to note that sudden bridge collapses and derailments capture headlines, but equally important are the "slow-motion derailments" to our transportation system that occur on a daily basis because of lack of investment in our roads and rails.

"We’ve often pointed out the urgency of connecting state Route 167 from where it now ends in Puyallup to Interstate 5 and the Port of Tacoma....In Washington, a failure to fund road and transit improvements would produce slow-motion failure. By degrees, traffic chokepoints will throttle jobs and impede traffic and shipping across the state. Lawmakers must act this session to stop the slide."