The
U.S. has underinvested in infrastructure for decades
Much analysis has been done to show that
the infrastructure failures of Minneapolis and New Orleans
were not isolated events but are symptomatic of an underfunded
infrastructure system that stretches from coast to coast
and touches nearly every city and town in between.
The American Society of Civil Engineers
(ASCE) graded American infrastructure in 2005 and the
results should be a wake-up call to decision makers in
the federal government. In category after category, the
story was the same: deteriorating conditions approaching
dangerous levels of disrepair, with needs outpacing allocated
funds. The ASCE estimated that the infrastructure funding
needs totaled $1.6 trillion over a five-year period.
And yet, funding levels as a share of all federal expenditures
are exactly the same as they were more than twenty years
ago.
As the funding gap widens and the
condition of our infrastructure further deteriorates,
America's infrastructure crisis becomes graver
every day. Although some on both sides of Pennsylvania
Avenue have recently begun to grasp the magnitude of
this problem, we cannot wait for the rest of Washington
to begin to act. |
