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Engineers: Infrastructure Fails to Make the Grade |
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With Congress debating President Obama’s plan to rebuild our infrastructure as a key part of an economic stimulus plan, civil engineers—the people who know our roads, bridges and dams best—give our infrastructure an overall grade of ”D” and say repairs and upgrades are desperately needed.
In a report issued this week, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) says the nation’s infrastructure is poorly maintained, unable to meet current and future demands and, in some cases, is simply unsafe.
ASCE’s new 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure assigns an overall grade of “D” to the nation as well as individual grades in 15 infrastructure categories. Since ASCE’s last assessment in 2005, there has been little change in the condition of America’s roads, bridges, drinking water systems and other public works.
The organization estimates it will take $2.2 trillion in repairs and upgrades over the next five years—nearly three times Obama’s infrastructure repair request—to just meet adequate conditions. Click here for details of the new Report Card.
ASCE Executive Director Patrick Natale told CNN that for too long, there’s been a “patch and pray” mentality in the United States of short-term fixes and hoping that they work.
We’ve been talking about this for many, many years. 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.
At a press conference yesterday to release the report, ASCE President Wayne Klotz said:
Crumbling infrastructure has a direct impact on our personal and economic health, and the nation’s infrastructure crisis is endangering our future prosperity.
Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell (D) agreed, saying that as the economy continues to worsen, Americans shouldn’t have to worry about poor infrastructure. In fact, some industries such as the steel industry depend on infrastructure and an infrastructure failure could set their business back for years.
The engineers gave our roads a “D-,” with Americans spending more than 4.2 billion hours a year stuck in traffic. According to the report:
- Drinking water also received a “D-,” with a whopping 7 billion gallons of clean drinking water lost each day to leaking pipes alone, the report says.
- The nation’s solid waste system got the highest grade at “C+” because of success in recycling. More than one-third was recycled or recovered, presenting a 7 percent increase since 2000.
The ASCE report comes about a week after the nonpartisan Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) found that rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure could go a long way toward helping our economy recover. AAM reported that investing in the nation’s infrastructure could create some 18,000 new jobs for every $1 billion in new infrastructure spending on the nation’s transportation, energy, water systems and public schools.
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All the money that the federal government gives to the states for infrastructure should come with a previso that all projects over 1 million dollars must be given to Union Companies and all sub-contract work and all projec tsunder 1 million dollars must be given to small businesses that pay living wages.
This is specially important in the red states. The republicans in the read states must come to understand that it’s living wage and Union Jobs that lift people out of poverty, build a strong middle class and a prosperous economy for all.
Our infrastructure has been deteriorating for several decades, and the only people that seemed to notice are the ones directly affected by obsolete bridges, trains, roads, public buildings - the list is endless. There are so many jobs that could be created just in renovating everything that is deteriorating in this country.
This is a little tidbit of past information, but is there anyone out there from Ohio who remembers the Center Street Bridge in Youngstown, Ohio? If you do, you will recall that this was the most dangerous bridge ever, yet it continued to be in use for several years, well after it was no longer deemed safe. It is a miracle indeed that it did not collapse before it was finally dismantled. The city of Youngstown could not afford to build a new bridge, so that connector between two sub cities was gone forever, never again to be rebuilt. This was back in the 70’s. Ohioans could certainly tell you a thing or two about decaying infrastructure.