America’s Crumbling Infrastructure
By Benjamin Landy
In January 2009, as the American economy faltered and Congress struggled to agree on the size of an economic stimulus package, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issued more disheartening news: according to their most recent assessment, the nation’s infrastructure was in its worst state in decades. “More than 26%, or one in four, of the nation’s bridges are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete,” stated the report. “The number of deficient dams has risen to more than 4,000, including 1,819 high hazard potential dams… Poor road conditions cost motorists $67 billion a year in repairs and operating costs, and cost 14,000 Americans their lives. One-third of America’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition and 36% of major urban highways are congested.” The ASCE gave America’s overall infrastructure a ‘D.’
For a moment, it seemed the ideal time to rebuild, putting millions of unemployed Americans to work in the spirit of FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps or the Public Works Administration. “We can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow,” Barack Obama declared in his 2010 State of the Union Address, to thunderous applause. “From the first railroads to the Interstate Highway System, our nation has always been built to compete. There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products.”
And yet, since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed into law, little more than $100 billion has been allocated and spent on renewing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, far short of the $2.2 trillion the ASCE estimated would be required over a five year period to raise their grade from ‘poor’ to ‘acceptable.’
Source: Congressional Budget Office, US Government Printing Office
Unfortunately, this current state of neglect is actually part of a much longer historical trend of de-investment. While the amount of money lavished on defense continues to rise far above the Cold War average, the United States spends less and less of its GDP on roads, bridges, rail and waterways every year. Infrastructure spending has been steadily declining since it peaked at 5.6% of GDP in 1961, and has fallen to around 2.5% today.
As Henry Petroski of Duke University points out, “infrastructure is a fancy contemporary term for what used to be known as public works.” Perhaps if Americans were more aware of the original terminology, they would once again recognize investing in their shared infrastructure as the civic responsibility that it truly is.
