The press has been whining about “aging infrastructure” for 30 years. I was a reporter in the early 80’s and remember dozens of stories just like this one.
Well, whine about it long enough and it becomes fact.
Look at our roads, look at our electrical distribution systems. I used to routinely work in substations where the nameplate data had a manufacturing date of BEFORE 1920.
Over half the distribution transformers in service are 40 years or older (and they were designed for NO MORE than 50 years).
They certainly have. I remember news stories in the early 80s that said most of the small bridges in the US were built by the W.P.A. during the Depression.
The stories said that these bridges only had a life expectancy of 50 years, and by 1985 they would have all crumbled and collapsed.
Twenty two years later and still waiting....waiting....