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U.S. Infrastructure: Increasingly Unsafe
CFP ^ | March 21, 2005 | Alan Caruba

Posted on 03/21/2005 6:58:20 AM PST by MikeEdwards

Years ago when I had a full head of hair, I worked for the New Jersey Institute of Technology and gained a great respect for engineers and architects. Without them, nothing gets built, nothing works, and we would all be back rubbing two sticks together to make a fire.

In early March, my local daily newspaper ran a story that was four paragraphs long and buried at the bottom of the page. Engineers see U.S. Infrastructure Sinking. It was one of those stories deemed newsworthy enough to include since it cited a report by the American Society of Civil Engineers, but I doubt that anyone at the paper considered the full implications of the story. There was no mention of it on the broadcast news media. After all, how exciting are bad bridges and solid waste management?

Let me tell you how important it is; if some attention and a whole lot of money is not spent on the nation’s infrastructure, i.e., aviation, bridges, dams, drinking water, energy, hazardous waste removal, navigable waterways, parks and recreation, rail travel, roads, schools, security, solid waste, transit, and wastewater, then life in this country as we know it is going to resemble a Third World nation.

How bad is it? The ASCE report, issued every four years, gives the national infrastructure an overall grade of D, down from a D+ in 2001. The Society estimates it would take a total investment of $1.6 trillion dollars over five years to bring these various elements up to acceptable levels. "If we treated our own homes like we treat our infrastructure," says William Henry, ASCE president, "we’d all live in shacks."

"The nation’s infrastructure is sliding toward failure and the prospect for any real improvement is grim . . . .

(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: aviation; bridges; congress; dams; energy; engineering; infrastructure; parks; railtravel; railways; roads; schools; security; solidwaste; transit; waste; wastewater; water; waterways

1 posted on 03/21/2005 6:58:29 AM PST by MikeEdwards
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To: MikeEdwards

Yeah but who cares?

Schiavo, Michael Jackson, Oscars, Emmy's, Grammy's, Steroids in baseball, No NHL, are FARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR more important.


2 posted on 03/21/2005 7:00:16 AM PST by HMFIC (Fourth Generation American INFIDEL and PROUD OF IT!)
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To: MikeEdwards

No problem! We'll just outsource our infrastructure...


3 posted on 03/21/2005 7:04:08 AM PST by null and void (Even if Terri didn't want to live like that, it doesn't follow that she wants to die like THIS!)
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To: MikeEdwards
We don't have money for infrastructure - however, we do have plenty of money to give free medical care to illegals, HUD housing to drug users and social security to elderly immigrants who have not worked a day in the US in their lives...
4 posted on 03/21/2005 7:11:35 AM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - They want to die for Islam, and we want to kill them.)
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To: MikeEdwards

The infrastructure is PURPOSELY designed to have a limited lifetime. It is called "depreciation", whether by physical deterioration, or for functional reasons, or simply because it costs too much to make the necessary improvements so its use conforms with current demands. There is also the continuous re-employment aspect, as in the case of roadways and urban development. Some re-use may be gained by changing things from their original function to some new function demended by economics ot technological change, but the fact is, the world is continually being reinvented or rebuilt, and sometimes, some aspects just fall through the cracks until the situation gets noticed.

Occasionally (well, a LOT of the time), a piece of work is done without considering the future when it must be either dismantled, or additional improvements need be made to restore it to some degree of usefulness. Then, replacing or reconstruction gets much more expensive. Or the design may have been a million-dollar idea, and there was a fifty-cent execution. Which only increases the overall cost, as the original structure put in place must first be ripped out, and a real job of finishing things right must be done.


5 posted on 03/21/2005 7:16:05 AM PST by alloysteel ("Master of the painfully obvious.....")
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To: MikeEdwards
Drive across the United States on the Interstate highways and you will get a good idea about their condition.
6 posted on 03/21/2005 7:22:00 AM PST by Citizen Tom Paine (An old sailor sends.)
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To: Citizen Tom Paine

Was in Upstate NY several weeks back. Roads were ATROCIOUS!


7 posted on 03/21/2005 7:23:27 AM PST by HMFIC (Fourth Generation American INFIDEL and PROUD OF IT!)
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To: MikeEdwards

And the government response - The Big Dig, which is already a dangerous piece of trash and it was only recently put into service - we can't afford "solutions" like that


8 posted on 03/21/2005 7:24:49 AM PST by trebb ("I am the way... no one comes to the Father, but by me..." - Jesus in John 14:6 (RSV))
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To: Citizen Tom Paine
Drive across the United States on the Interstate highways and you will get a good idea about their condition.

Correct.

and,....our U.S.A. Infrastructure demands the building of 1,000 new domestic oil/gas REFINERIES for a 'healthy-$$$$', sovereign "FREE" nation/people?

9 posted on 03/21/2005 7:26:36 AM PST by maestro
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To: Citizen Tom Paine
Drive across the United States on the Interstate highways and you will get a good idea about their condition.

Correct.

and,....our U.S.A. Infrastructure demands the building of 1,000 new domestic oil/gas REFINERIES for a 'healthy-$$$$', sovereign "FREE" nation/people?

10 posted on 03/21/2005 7:27:07 AM PST by maestro
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To: alloysteel

or it might just be that politicians are reactionaries...
nothing gets done until something tragic occurs...


11 posted on 03/21/2005 7:35:45 AM PST by kellynla (U.S.M.C. 1st Battalion,5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Div. Viet Nam 69&70 Semper Fi)
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To: HMFIC; MikeEdwards
“Nation building begins at home.”

A few blocks from my house there is an area of intensive residential and commercial redevelopment, including a 16 screen multiplex, a half-dozern sit-down chain restaurants, and several high-rise condos with half-million dollar plus units. They are sited there primarily because of their proximity to excellent public transportation into down-town Chicago: a walk of less than a block to both a RTA “L” stop and a C&NW station. The underpasses supporting both lines are in badly deteriorated condition, one of them is shored up by a web of “temporary” I-beams set on footings partially blocking the street over which the trains pass.

This year, just when some of this property started to come on line in the tax base and help to close my cities budget gap (we have already been through several rounds of cost-cutting, including maintenance reductions that are costing us more, long term, them properly maintaining the same infrastructure would have), a local Private University (Northwestern U) bought one of the newer buildings for administrative office space. This made the property tax-exempt, and reduced tax receipts by more than $1M a year, which of course will have to be covered by local business and homeowners.

So we’re getting hit from every direction by public and private users who take advantage of infrastructure they expect others to maintain.
12 posted on 03/21/2005 8:04:33 AM PST by M. Dodge Thomas (More of the same, only with more zeros on the end.)
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To: HMFIC; MikeEdwards
“Nation building begins at home.”

A few blocks from my house there is an area of intensive residential and commercial redevelopment, including a 16 screen multiplex, a half-dozern sit-down chain restaurants, and several high-rise condos with half-million dollar plus units. They are sited there primarily because of their proximity to excellent public transportation into down-town Chicago: a walk of less than a block to both a RTA “L” stop and a C&NW station. The underpasses supporting both lines are in badly deteriorated condition, one of them is shored up by a web of “temporary” I-beams set on footings partially blocking the street over which the trains pass.

This year, just when some of this property started to come on line in the tax base and help to close my cities budget gap (we have already been through several rounds of cost-cutting, including maintenance reductions that are costing us more, long term, them properly maintaining the same infrastructure would have), a local Private University (Northwestern U) bought one of the newer buildings for administrative office space. This made the property tax-exempt, and reduced tax receipts by more than $1M a year, which of course will have to be covered by local business and homeowners.

So we’re getting hit from every direction by public and private users who take advantage of infrastructure they expect others to maintain.
13 posted on 03/21/2005 8:04:38 AM PST by M. Dodge Thomas (More of the same, only with more zeros on the end.)
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