Once again you present NO facts! NO FACTS, and just a feeling from your limited experience. Absurd.
There is an ENORMOUS amount of evidence that says there are large infrastructure problems and needs in the U.S.
I presented some of that evidence.
This has nothing to do with idealism and everything to do with reality.
"One of the chief challenges facing infrastructure is simply age. Much of the nation’s transportation infrastructure was erected in the boom days after World War II and is reaching the end of its life cycle.
Half of the nation’s bridges were built before 1964, when the ill-fated Minneapolis bridge was constructed. More than half of the bridges in Rhode Island and Massachusetts also are rated deficient or obsolete, according to the U.S. Transportation Department.
More than a third of the nation’s nearly 83,000 dams already are 50 years old, and within a decade, 60 percent will reach the half-century mark.
Cast-iron pipes from the 19th century still carry water to sinks in some of the nation’s oldest cities and are overdue to be replaced, according to the American Water Works Association. Although it has not done a state-by-state survey, the association estimates that replacing worn-out water pipes will cost $250 billion over 30 years. In November, Congress overrode President Bush’s veto to authorize up to $23 billion over 15 years for water projects.
Another worry is that the nation’s growing population is creating a need for more capacity. Today, 246 million cars — 278 percent more than 50 years ago — are forced to squeeze onto 47,000 miles of interstate that have increased only 15 percent during the last half-century.
New Jersey has the most snarled traffic in the country with congestion choking 58 percent of its urban roads and 52 percent of rural roads, according to an analysis of federal data by The Road Information Project.
To handle growing transportation needs, the federal highway system will have to double during the next 50 years and public transportation ridership should double within 20 years, according to recommendations from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Railways should be prepared to handle a 63 percent increase in freight by 2035, the association estimated.
Besides stretching the country’s infrastructure to its limits, the growing population puts more people in harm’s way when something goes wrong. Development in floodplains and below dams has contributed to the fast-rising costs of flood damage, now an annual $6 billion, according to the Association of State Floodplain Managers.
Dams are a major concern for states, which have regulatory oversight of 85 percent of those structures even though nearly two-thirds are privately owned. The federal government monitors the other 15 percent, mostly major hydro-power generators such as the massive Hoover Dam on the Colorado River.
Ohio has the highest percentage of dams listed as deficient, with 48 percent, according to data compiled by ASDSO. Indiana is second, with nearly 45 percent of its dams rated in need of repair. States set their own standards for rating dam safety.
Another challenge is that infrastructure repairs simply aren’t as sexy as ribbon-cuttings. The public and politicians are more likely to support new construction, leaving existing structures wanting, said Pagano, the urban planning expert in Chicago. It’s like buying a car and budgeting only for the purchase price, ignoring the costs of insurance, fuel, oil changes and new tires, he said.
The Government Performance Project (GPP), which measures how effectively states are managed, called unfunded and deferred maintenance “unquestionably the biggest problem for states in their management of infrastructure.” (The GPP, like Stateline.org, is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.)
Overall, rehabilitating a dilapidated structure can cost six to 20 times more than routine maintenance would have cost, Deloitte’s analysts found.
For example, the Minnesota bridge that collapsed last August had been tagged “structurally deficient” in 1990. But the state deferred a $1.5 million steel-reinforcement project scheduled for 2006 and ordered more frequent inspections. The cost to build a new bridge is slated at $250 million.
States also are skimping on staff to check up on existing structures. Minnesota had 77 bridge inspectors for 14,000 bridges. “There aren’t enough hours in the workday for 77 inspectors to check 14,000 bridges the way we should” with an inspection every two years, Minnesota bridge inspector Bart Andersen testified on Capitol Hill.
One problem of paying for repairs is that the pot of money for improvements is steadily shrinking in value, if not in size.
Matthew L. Garrett, director of the Oregon Department of Transportation, said that even with a growing number of taxpayers, revenues aren’t keeping pace with the bills. Spending on bricks-and-mortar projects equaled about 2 percent of per-capita personal income in the 1950s and 1960s but has shrunk to less than 1 percent, Garrett said.
Compounding the problem, prices for steel, concrete and land have grown rapidly in recent years. Road-building costs are projected to increase more than 70 percent between 1993, when federal gas taxes were last increased, and 2015, according to an AASHTO report. The association estimates that federal gasoline taxes would have to rise 10 cents to 28.4 cents per gallon by 2015 just to keep up with maintenance.
This article was excerpted from “State of the States 2008,” Stateline.org’s annual report on significant state policy developments and trends released Jan. 16."
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