{"id":51,"date":"2003-10-14T23:02:43","date_gmt":"2003-10-15T03:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wordpress\/2003\/10\/americas_infrastructure\/"},"modified":"2003-10-14T23:02:43","modified_gmt":"2003-10-15T03:02:43","slug":"americas_infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/2003\/10\/americas_infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s Infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do you usually think about when you are driving? If you’re like me, most of the time you probably think about things unrelated to your transit. When I do dwell on my drive, I usually think about:<\/p>\n

(1) The time: I’m often running late;
\n(2) My speed: I don’t want to get a ticket;
\n(3) Traffic lights: I hate stop lights and often try to time my arrival so I don’t have to come to a complete stop at them;
\n(4) Other drivers: Sometimes it gets a bit scary out there;
\n(5) Gridlock: On those bad<\/i> days–why are all these vehicles not moving?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One thing I rarely contemplate is the structural condition of the roads\/bridges I’m driving on. But according to a recently-released report<\/a> by the American Society of Civil Engineers, perhaps I should.
\nLast month the ASCE released a follow up progress report on its 2001 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, in which it assess the conditions of 12 infrastructure categories, including bridges and roads.
\nThe 2001 Report didn’t paint a pretty picture of America’s infrastructure. The grades were:<\/p>\n

Roads [D+]
\nBridges [C]
\nTransit [C-]
\nAviation [D]
\nSchools [D-]
\nDrinking Water [D]
\nWastewater [D]
\nDams [D]
\nSolid Waste [C+]
\nHazardous Waste [D+]
\nNavigable Waterways [D+]
\nEnergy [D+]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For purposes of the report, a grade of “C” is considered “Mediocre” and a “D” is considered “poor.”
\nBecause insufficient time has elapsed to make substantial changes on these large-scale items, the 2003 update does not assign new grades; instead, it offers a current trend assessment. Unfortunately, there’s not much headway to report. In each category, the 2003 trend is either “no progress” or “declining.”
\nWhat’s holding progress back? For one thing, the cost of making needed improvements:<\/p>\n

In 2001, the estimated cost for infrastructure renewal was $1.3 trillion over a five-year period. Today, that cost has risen to $1.6 trillion over a five-year period.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It will take a multi-tiered effort to overcome this:<\/p>\n

[S]olutions to repair our crumbling infrastructure can be addressed through a renewed partnership between citizens, the private sector, and local, state and federal governments, reauthorization of TEA-21, and passage of the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act can provide critical funding to repair our transportation and water infrastructure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ASCE website also includes individual state reports<\/a>. For example, the Tennessee report<\/a> indicates that:<\/p>\n