Daylife/AP Photo by Jim Mone
America’s civil engineers think the nation’s aging and rusty infrastructure is just not making the grade.
The American Society of Civil Engineers has issued an infrastructure report card giving a bleak cumulative ranking of D.
“We’ve been talking about this for many many years,” Patrick Natale, the group’s executive director, told CNN. “We really haven’t had the leadership or will to take action on it. The bottom line is that a failing infrastructure cannot support a thriving economy.”
The ranking — which grades the condition of 15 infrastructure entities such as roads, bridges and dams — is the same as the the last time such a report was issued, in 2005. In 2001, the grade was D+, slightly better but still poor.
The group estimates that the government and the private sector need to invest $2.2 trillion over five years, roughly three times the size of President Obama’s stimulus package.
Natale says there’s been a mentality in the United States of short-term fixes and hoping that they work — “patch and pray,” as he puts it.
“By underinvesting, the price tag escalates,” Natale said.
Wander through the categories. I don’t see anything there I disagree with. It’s all pretty poor. The grades are deserved.
Is this as high a priority as slathering money on investment banks?
Eideard said, “Is this as high a priority as slathering money on investment banks?”
“Only 60 percent of federal gas taxes goes to the construction and maintenance of highways and bridges.”
http://ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba597/
Perhaps congress should use those tax proceeds for roads and bridges rather than subsidizing other projects…
We don’t dare ask for that kind of review here in Canada. Our national highway system is so bad people and truckers travelling across Canada usually travel through the northern US. We are so incredibly overfilled with government employees there is simply nothing left over to actually build anything. And then we do it again in French!
I don’t like relying on “grades” in categories.
The goal would be to have EVERY infrastructure resource listed in an on-line data base with links to the relevant data==including maintenance budget and plans, hazard alerts, etc.
Lets see bridges fall down when the web reports it as unsafe and the local government doing nothing about it.
How about some pork spending on things that are needed?
It makes me wish that politicians, of any political persuasion, were adults that could get the peoples work done. Most of them seem to represent lobbyists and not their constituents.
#2 and the rest of you..
NOW you know what our taxes HAVENT been used for.
I was a civil engineer. Never got my PE (Professional Engineering) license but did get the EIT and was close to being there. About 10 years ago it occurred to me, there is more money/ less responsibility in software. Civil Engineering is an under-appreciated profession, considering the stakes involved and that your name is on a plan, that if anything goes wrong, your on the hook for. Its incredibly cool to have something you design get built (2 acre retention pond!)
Maybe now those Engineers can start to earn what they deserve.
The upside of our current plan, if it works (and it won’t) is that we will have functional banks.
The downside, is that we won’t have any functional bridges to help us drive down to the bank, and between rolling blackouts and internet stultification, good luck accessing your money otherwise.
Good plan, DC, good plan.
#6 a
Until the two acre retention pond breaks and floods the area with coal plant by-products.
60% of gas tax spent on roads and you’re complaining. Here in the banana republic of Canada <1% of the “road tax” on gas goes into roads. In Quebec it looks like the money goes into bribes, because their overpasses keep collapsing and revealing significant reductions in rebar in the concrete structures. I say bribes because you cannot miss the fact rebar is missing from the design during inspection.
With bilingualism our governement is dominated by Quebecers with the obvious consequence.
Hey the roads need fixing, people need jobs, it’s a win-win. I would gladly leave my desk job to work laying concrete.
… if it paid more
The roads in Va. Beach, VA (Hampton Roads) SUX! I’ve driven on roads in Poland and other third world countries that were superior. We don’t even get frost damage here, I can only imagine how poor the roads up North are.
#12, Poland is a 3rd world country?
For those who didnt do the math..
the highest FUEL tax in the USA is about $0.70 per gallon. which ends up at $0.42 per gallon..
THAT $0.70 is only from 1-3 states. THE REST of the states TAX LESS.
IN CANADA, the tax is 50% of the FUEL price, and FUEL is $4-5 per gallon.
If you figure that there is AT LEAST 1 million gallons per DAY sold in each state(its higher).
That $0.42 is split between STATE and FEDERAL..
so Tax in the HIGHEST state $420,000 is about $250,000 for the fed.
I’m calling bullshit on this one.
There has been ONE major bridge collapse in the last ten years that I’m aware of. It collapsed because of a design flaw, not maintenance.
Yes many bridges need work. BUT, they are not falling down. Now, how many people can point to a bridge within 100 miles of them that is closed or even has reduced weight limits on them?
#15, there is a small two lane bridge here on the Marine base that is currently restricted to one lane with a traffic light because of a structural crack. Been that way for a year, and who knows when they will fix it.
But that is the only one I know of, and it’s not like it’s heavily used anyway.
#9, bcook,
Perhaps you could enlighten us about all these bridges and overpasses collapsing in Quebec. I can only see one and that was in 2006. And it was 35 yr/o, hardly grounds for a bribery complaint today.
#15 is right. As an engineer, I’ve seen the ethics of Civil Engineers. If a greater emphasis was placed on infrastructure, the primary beneficiaries would be the construction and engineering firms. These are by and large run by Civils. This like the California Fruit Growers telling us we don’t eat enough fruit.
I see self serving propaganda and fear tactics.
Repairing infrastructure costs money now. Ignoring infrastructure problems costs money somewhere off in the future. If you fix an infrastructure problem, you have a problem that doesn’t happen, so isn’t noticed, after you’ve been haven’t been re-elected. But you do have a tax, that is noticed, and gets you not re-elected. So of course politicians ignore problems that won’t have negative outcomes until after re-election.
Hey, I can’t wait until my healthcare works like the road system infrastructure.
We can start the infrastructure projects when we finish building the Republican endorsed LDSB System.
“Laser Death Shield Bubble Defense System”
America Republican and all we got was a three trillion dollar war and a crappy infrastructure.
And, of course, an economy in the crapper.
And, yet, the Republicans think they can lecture us on economic theory.
On the bright side, the Russians are dismantling their nuclear bombs.
They just need to carpet bomb our infrastructure with marbles.
You do realize that your picture of the I90 bridge collapse has NOTHING to do with infrastructure repair issues, don’t you?
The I90 bridge collapsed because of an original construction flaw, gusset plates that were made from steel that was too thin, not lack of repair or update. Indeed, it was an overload from infrastructure improvement work that overstressed it and caused the collapse.
Ironic ‘eh?