Traveling across the metro lately has come, more and more, to resemble the movie Mad Max with its post-apocalyptic, crumbling desolate landscape.

Okay, that’s not to say the entire metro area is crumbling, because it’s not.

But our roads look like they came right off the Mad Max set.

And they’re getting worse.

Yes, Oklahoma, we have a major problem with our infrastructure.

Things like government buildings, roads and bridges are all falling apart. In fact, during the past few months, transportation officials have been forced to reroute traffic more than once to temporarily fix huge holes which have developed in the crumbling crosstown expressway.

A quick glance at the bottom of many of the overpasses in the area often reveals huge hunks of missing concrete or rusting steel.

Many school buildings desperately need repair and, across the area, too many students are wedged into too few classrooms.

In Moore, city officials and their education counterparts continue to fight the battle of old infrastructure. New schools are built and older schools remodeled.

City officials spend months — or, often years — fighting federal red tape to get the necessary funds to maintain overpasses and other major transportation arteries.

And they do it well — the best they can with the resources they have.

These same officials hunt and scrimp and save every penny possible to fund new projects such as a new wastewater treatment plant or road improvements.

But they shouldn’t have to.

Officials in Moore, Oklahoma City, Norman and the rest of the metro area should have the necessary funds available to keep our infrastructure current, our roads safe, and our buildings waterproof.

But they don’t.