U.S. Infrastructure Found to Be in Disrepair

The Wall Street Journal ^ | May 9, 2007 | THADDEUS HERRICK

[MinorityRepublican]

Airports, roads, rail, bridges and other transit infrastructure are deteriorating across the U.S. because of insufficient investment, according to a report.

Chicago needs $6 billion to bring its subways into good repair, says the report to be released today by the Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young LLP. Rehabilitation or replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge north of New York City could cost as much as $14.5 billion. And in Atlanta, current rush-hour trips by car could take 75% longer by 2030.

The report, entitled "Infrastructure 2007: A Global Perspective," says the failure to address what the co-authors call an emerging crisis in mobility will undermine the ability of the U.S. to compete internationally. "At some point, the system is going to grind to a halt," says Dale Ann Reiss, global director of real estate at the New York-based Ernst & Young accounting firm and vice chairman of the Urban Land Institute, a land-use think tank in Washington.

More foreboding, the report warns that further inaction will lead to disasters on the magnitude of the levee failures in Hurricane Katrina.

The report underscores the broader disrepair of transit, power and water systems in the U.S. In 2005, the American Society of Civil Engineers graded as "poor" the condition of the nation's transit infrastructure as well as power grids, dams and systems for drinking water and wastewater. The U.S. faces a $1.6 trillion deficit in needed infrastructure spending through 2010 for repairs and maintenance, today's report says.

A lack of political will because of fear of raising taxes is mainly responsible for the shortfall, the report says. It predicts an array of higher taxes but also says help is needed from the private sector and public-private partnerships, which it predicts will help fund, construct, operate and manage transit projects.

[snowsislander]

...as well as power grids,...

The electric power infrastructure is the one that I am the most concerned about. While the transportation sector has some gaps, our electric power problems seem to me more worrisome.

[pierrem15]

Heh. Or how about "Turning most infrastructure projects into bloated jobs and pork programs for political backers hasn't worked?"

"A lack of political will because of fear of raising taxes is mainly responsible for the shortfall,.."

No. The money spent is simply wasted in unjustified employee wages and benefits or stolen by politically connected contractors.

I think here in Chicago that we're lucky if 10 cents on the dollar is actually delivered in terms of work done on any given public project. Case in point: a renovation of a 10 mile streatch of El is costing $500 million dollars. That's $50 million dollars per mile for two railway tracks and a few stations.

I need to figure out how many millimeters of gold plate could be applied to each rail for the same money.

[stinkerpot65]

The press has been trotting out this story every year for the past 40 years.