Credit: AP
How does infrastructure in the U.S. compare to that of the rest of the world? It depends on who you ask.
On the last two report cards from the American Society of Civil Engineers, U.S. infrastructure scored a D+. This year’s report urged the government and private sector to increase spending by US$2 trillion within the next 10 years, in order to improve not only the physical infrastructure, but the country’s economy overall.
The quality of infrastructure systems can be measured in different ways – including efficiency, safety and how much money is being invested. As a researcher in risk and resilience of infrastructure systems, I know that infrastructure assessment is far too complex to boil down into one metric. For instance, while the U.S. ranks second in road infrastructure spending, it falls in the 60th place for road safety, due to the high rate of deaths from road […]
More important than comparing the US to other countries is comparing existing conditions to people’s expectations and needs. Example: our roads have terrible potholes, but if many of us drive SUVs and pick up trucks the potholes may pose less of a problem than for other countries.
A big problem as I see it is that most infrastructure projects require funding from multiple jurisdictions, city / county / state / federal. All it takes is one partner to drag their feet and a project can be delayed until a new legislative session, when it may fail. I wonder how many times we have seen this?
It would be interesting to compare counties across the US by infrastructure status and tax rates. My theory is that infrastructure is most likely to be crumbling in those areas where citizens vote against tax increases, even ones that will help them. People who oppose taxes as a rule must have an affinity for dirt roads and crossing rivers by barge.
Yup. The criminal gross negligence of .gov psychopaths is catching up to us. if you vote, you are responsible for the ongoing destruction of other countries (via bombs & economic warfare) and also the demise of our infrastructure..because you elected these criminals and gave them permission. If you pay taxes then you also gave them the money in some cases (except of course where trillions are borrowed to execute wars). The criminal psychopaths in the utility industry and congress also refuse to fix our grid infrastructure by hardening transformers from EMP / solar flare..or fix the SCADA systems which control the grid and have no computer security..this alone is virtually an high treason.