$4.59 Trillion Investment is Needed to Make US Infrastructure Adequate Again

[nazdrowie]

• AUTHOR: JACK STEWART 
• TRANSPORTATION,
• DATE OF PUBLICATION: 03.09.17.,
• TIME OF PUBLICATION: 9:30 AM.
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ONE OF PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s first promises after getting elected was to spend $1 trillion  on infrastructure—bridges, roads, tunnels, pipes, dams. And whether you’ve had to evacuate a town in the shadow of a crumbling dam, buy filters for tainted municipal water, or even just bounced over potholes on a highway, you’ve experienced the problems the president alluded to.

Well, it really is as bad as you think. The American Society of Civil Engineers has just released its latest infrastructurereport card, and grades the United States at D plus. That means the country’s public works are in substandard condition, with a risk of failure. The ASCE releases its reports every four years, and the mark hasn’t changed since the last time. “While our nation’s infrastructure problems are significant, they are solvable,” says ASCE President Norma Jean Mattei. But that’ll take money.

So … $1 trillion, right? Great news! Except the ASCE report says it’ll take $4.59 trillion to bring things up to a B, or adequate grade, by 2025. That’s a shortfall of $2 trillion over current spending plans. Again: $1 trillion is nowhere near enough.

Yesterday President Trump had lunch with infrastructure and transport business leaders to start discussing his plans for nationwide rebuilding. As The Wall Street Journalreports, he wants to focus on renovating old roads and building high-speed rail, and he talked about both public and private financing. He even asked Elon Musk for more details about his hyperloop  idea. All of which would be a good start but won’t fix many of the issues the new report highlights.

Some areas have shown modest improvement since 2013. The 30,000 miles of levees that protect communities and infrastructure along rivers and coasts went from a D minus to a D. Rail went from C plus to B, mainly because freight companies own the majority of the nation’s railroads, and they’ve spent on repairs and upgrades. Passenger rail is still old and underfunded, the report notes—likely no surprise to anyone who uses it.

Now, for sure, be a little skeptical. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a report compiled by civil engineers would call for lots more civil engineering. The worst-case scenario highlights the benefits of expensive, large-scale building projects. Engineers are also ultraconservative, particularly with safety standards (with good reason). But that can lead to exaggerated cost estimates.

Even that aside, infrastructure spending can be a hard sell. Projects take longer to plan, approve, and build than a four-year election cycle. Investments in water supply pipes or levees can often be literally hidden from view. And yet they can be the most critical.

That’s where the priority-setting will have to come in. “I’m not just looking at the grade but at what that infrastructure is and how important to safety it is,” says Wassim Selmam, president of infrastructure at Arcadis, a global design and engineering consultancy. “Levees are very important because they’re adjacent to communities.” He also highlights dams as a concern. The average age of the 90,580 dams in the US is 56 years, and 2,170 of those are classified as “deficient, high-hazard,” meaning if they fail, it could be very very bad for people living downstream.

All of that means a shortfall in cash money to fix the crumbling bits of the country exactly when federal funding of these mega projects has dropped by half over the past three decades, from 1 percent to 0.5 percent of GDP. So there are two stark choices: Find more money or spend less.

Last November, hundreds of ballot measures  asked to raise taxes at the city, region, and state levels to pay for transport projects like light rail and bike paths. And 72 percent of the measures passed. “There’s an aversion at the federal level to raising taxes, but there’s a very different conversation happening outside of the beltway when people are presented with specifics about investment,” says Rob Puentes, president of the Eno Center for Transportation.

Infrastructure could also pay its own way. The ASCE report says one in every five miles of America’s highways is in poor condition, but toll roads like the recently opened 12 miles of I-75 express lines near Atlanta are silky smooth. Tolls could also help fund the structurally deficient 10 percent of America’s bridges, through public private partnerships.

“We can’t afford to make every type of infrastructure a level B,” Selman says. If it’s something safety-critical, like hazardous-waste sites or aviation, then of course a good grade is needed. “If it’s just a matter of capacity and level of service, C might be OK.” So parks and recreation (currently D plus) might have to take a back seat, for example.

One positive is that the conversation has moved on from just highlighting the infrastructure issue to attempting to figure out what to do about it. The Journal  reports that President Trump wants states to start projects within 90 days of getting cash, so hold on to that thought as you rattle over rough roads and play sardines on the train.

https://www.wired.com/2017/03/america-gets-d-plus-infrastructure-big-bill-fix/?mbid=social_twitter

 

[big destro]

How much to make it great again though?

 

[jthagreat]

How much to make it great again though?

our constitution

 

[wballz]

Get the military money transferred to this infrastructure budget. 

Too much military industrial complex. The next President willing to go against this should be willing to die for the cause. 

 

[numbah1grimey]

Greatest, most developed, most advanced country doe, so they say...

 

[jjs]

Yet tax evasion costs the USA 458 billion each year and the country spends ~600 billion on military every year.

 

[Chiron]

Spend a trillion on advancing solar energy for public/federal buildings, parks, and housing.

Never pay another power bill.

Sell some of the power back to energy corporations.

Slightly raise taxes (which is off set by solar energy subsidies for everybody).

Roads are paid for in two terms while interest is low.

Build the infrastructure with energy efficient/ green materials.

Save the environment.

Elon Musk for president 2020.

Colonies on mars.

Win the second space race against Russia.

Profit.

 

[gry60]

That grade keeps going down. It was C+ a few years ago.

And +1 to whoever mentioned the tax avoidance by the wealthiest in the country. Don't forget that only 8 people control as much wealth as 3.5 billion people on this planet.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Our broken infrastructure could be a blessing in disguise because we could create a jobs program centered round fixing it. Infrastructure spending has many short term and long term economic benefits.

Trump's infrastructure plan is horrible, and I'm not saying that as a liberal, even many economist are scratching their heads at it. It has way to many tax breaks in there, the incentives are all screwed up.

Putting race and the environment aside, the three major sectors that need reforming in America is our education system, our health insurance and healthcare system, and our infrastructure. And the most of the policymakers in control right now, the GOP, have determined to make the situation worst.

It is not until it starts failing and we have major tragedies is something going to get done.

 

[RustyShackleford]

.

 

[frshstunna]

Smart , simple things any govt should invest in is education, health/child care and infrastructure ...USA been determined to make all these 3 things difficult and trash for a min tho

 

[ninjahood]

Spend a trillion on advancing solar energy for public/federal buildings, parks, and housing.
Never pay another power bill.
Sell some of the power back to energy corporations.
Slightly raise taxes (which is off set by solar energy subsidies for everybody).
Roads are paid for in two terms while interest is low.
Build the infrastructure with energy efficient/ green materials.
Save the environment.
Elon Musk for president 2020.
Colonies on mars.
Win the second space race against Russia.
Profit.

solar power isn't sustainable when u upscale it to da amount of power da USA uses.

can't even have a commerical airline industry running straight solar.

 

[Chiron]

Our broken infrastructure could be a blessing in disguise because we could create a jobs program centered round fixing it. Infrastructure spending has many short term and long term economic benefits.

Trump's infrastructure plan is horrible, and I'm not saying that as a liberal, even many economist are scratching their heads at it. It has way to many tax breaks in there, the incentives are all screwed up.

Putting race and the environment aside, the three major sectors that need reforming in America is our education system, our health insurance and healthcare system, and our infrastructure. And the most of the policymakers in control right now, the GOP, have determined to make the situation worst.

It is not until it starts failing and we have major tragedies is something going to get done.

Well education aint gonna get fixed because wealthy people need stupid consumers.

healthcare aint getting fixed because nobody is going to pull the 2 million dollar plug on grandma, even though she only got a year or 2 left, and no one ones going to tell Dr. Gupta to do 10 years of school and NOT be able to afford the new Porsche.

Jobs aint gonna be lucrative infrastructure jobs won't be that awesome because nobody wants to give health or retirement benefits

we're doomed

 

[Chiron]

 

[gry60]

solar power isn't sustainable when u upscale it to da amount of power da USA uses.


can't even have a commerical airline industry running straight solar.

Nevada, California, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico could probably all go 100% right now for less than 500 billion

The person you're replying to doesn't operate on the basis of evidence. Good luck with convincing him.

The determining factor in the success of renewables will be the ability to store the energy produced during offpeak hours. The main drawback of solar and wind is their randomness, and battery storage greatly reduces the effects of that inconvenience.

 

[ninjahood]

Nevada, California, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico could probably all go 100% right now for less than 500 billion. Power companies are in the way

pipe dream, especially California...rolling brownouts would be da norm.

look at da energy market share now.

 

[6 Rings G.O.A.T.]

Damn..

 

[Brownstone]

We have to stop treating national debt, like personal debt.

Two very different things.

 

[gentrification]

Whatever

 

[gry60]

Brownouts/blackouts only happen when the load cannot be adequately supplied.

Load

 

[ninjahood]

da FDR & Houston ST is a perfect example of crumbling infrastructure....

 

[jjs]

The determining factor in the success of renewables will be the ability to store the energy produced during offpeak hours. The main drawback of solar and wind is their randomness, and battery storage greatly reduces the effects of that inconvenient.

Tesla on it

The next ten years will be a turning point for mankind as far as energy, transport and automation. We will look back in 50 years and say : that's where the advancements in technology made it feasible.

 

[getyashinebox]

Substancial growth of renewable energy relative to fossil And nuke will take a LONG time unless drastic regulatory adjustments take place.

Energy market is heavily regulated and investment simply won't be there unless regs catch up with technology (and lesser extent consumer demand) and updated business models

Big advocate of decentralized grid and work passionately to figure it out but there are many hurdles in the way, some technical but mostly with policy wrt energy markets

 

[water]

p4l

 

[AZwildcats]

 

I am seeing more and more solar panels being put in the parking lots of schools where I live, but these are baby steps. The State as a whole is moving way to slow in adopting mass solar energy