America's Interstate Highway System: Aging, Overloaded And In Need Of Repairs

WBUR 90.9 ^ | June 03, 2019 | Jeremy Hobson and Jack Mitchell

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

America's interstate highway system, launched more than 60 years ago, now carries far more vehicles than it was originally built for and is in dire need of repairs and improvements.

The U.S. has "taken a generation off" from investing in infrastructure, says Brian Pallasch, director of government relations at the American Society of Civil Engineers. And with Americans driving more than ever before, that's leading to problems like frustration-inducing congestion and costly car repair bills.

"The roadways that we drive on every day put quite a toll on our vehicles," Pallasch tells Here & Now. "The average driver ... faces about $600 in vehicle repairs and maintenance in a given year just from the roadway system that damages it."

Construction projects to improve or expand interstate highways are underway across the country. Among them is a more than $2 billion effort to reconstruct 21 miles of Florida's Interstate 4, including a section that weaves right through downtown Orlando, one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the U.S.

The project, dubbed I-4 Ultimate, is exposing one of the many hurdles when it comes to addressing the state of interstate highways: Other infrastructure has continually sprung up around them over the course of decades, and hundreds of thousands of people now rely on interstates daily. That makes construction complex, to say the least.

"There's sewer lines and water mains and storm drains and electrical wires, fiber optic cables, that many times run through the right of way of these roadway systems or run across them. And so a lot of the utilities have to be reworked or relocated," Pallasch says. "All the while, [you're] trying to ensure that the traveling public gets to access the system."

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Just $690.00 dollars to 100%.

[MeganC]

Hard to fix the roads when government is busy diverting tax revenues to welfare, welfare for illegals, pensions for state workers, stadiums for billionaires, high speed rail, solar subsidies, electric car subsidies, and thousands upon thousands of other wasteful ideas.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

The U.S. tax on diesel is actually 24.4c/gallon, not 23.4 as the article says.

PING.

[dynachrome]

“Send more money”
signed, the federal gov’t.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Yep, they’re busy makin’ America Mexico Again.

[Pearls Before Swine]

That’s why we need higher taxes.

/S

[9YearLurker]

Send the 40 million illegals home and suddenly it won’t be overloaded. Then repairs and maintenance should be easily handled at the state level.

[Skywise]

So WTH happened to Obama’s BILLIONS spent on shovel ready projects to fix our infrastructure? How can we have “neglected” it for a generation when the Democrats exploded our deficit 10 fold to “fix it”?

Where’d the money go?

Where does the money (3 trillion now) continue to go?

Obviously not to US

[Fester Chugabrew]

If we’d just fill our tires with helium this whole problem would ease up.

[SaveFerris]

A three letter word! J-O-B-S!

Yay Joe Biden! As Barack says!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBHPvfAt5ow

[momincombatboots]

Exactly. Infrastructure is dem and union bailout.
Governments: Account for every penny of the fed, state and local fuel taxes, or go back to the taxpayer dollar lined pit.
They are just going to spendcit exactly as you said.. maybe some more vacation tickets for illegals on planrs and buses.

[griswold3]

Do to Automobiles as they do to Class A vehicles.
A Federal Highway Use Tax (2290) or $550 per vehicle.

(More money down the rat hole)

[Sequoyah101]

You are right. There is money for every kind of crap except what is essential.

Not only are the interstates crumbling so is the rest of the nation.

I have an old house. The foundation has failed. The basement walls are being pushed in by earth pressure. The brick walls are bowing outward and I expect to see them in the flower beds any day from now. The plumbing is shot, the windows are 50 years old and the sashes have rotted. At first glance or from the highway it is a beautiful old house and the scene of many happy memories and great times. You don’t have to look very close to see the decay. It is probably not worth saving and that is sad.

This nation is looking like that old house.

[Steven Scharf]

“The roadways that we drive on every day put quite a toll on our vehicles,” Pallasch tells Here & Now. “The average driver ... faces about $600 in vehicle repairs and maintenance in a given year just from the roadway system that damages it.”

You maybe able to a tribute $600 a year in repairs to road damage, but it is not the interstate that cause those problems, it is local roads that need work.

[ealgeone]

Imagine the expense of road repair IF “hands free” vehicles ever get on the road.

[Mark]

All of our wonderful PUBLIC schools need to hold “Bake Sales”.

[poinq]

This story is crap. There are lots of roads which have been replaced numerous times. There are other roads that have potholes. There are also trillions of dollars that get spent for billions of things. And when the powers that be want to fix a road, they fix it. And when they want to steal the money for another use, they do that. The money is always spent. And they don’t really care if we are taxed more or less, they still keep spending regardless.

[plain talk]

“The U.S. has “taken a generation off” from investing in infrastructure”

The guy acts like the interstates haven’t been touched in 60 years which is nonsense. Stretches of interstate have been rooted up and replaced from the foundation up.

This “infrastructure” theme is just a scam for more government “stimulus” money to be siphoned out of your wallet.

[Peter W. Kessler]

Spend fuel tax revenue EXCLUSIVELY on road repair and maintenance, and we’ll have the best highway system IN THE WORLD.

Simple