CHICAGO — U.S. roads, airports, schools, levees, dams, and other infrastructure are in overall poor shape and require a $2.2 trillion investment to bring them up to par, an engineering group said on Wednesday. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave infrastructure a grade of ‘D’ as U.S. President Barack Obama seeks $825 billion in extra government spending and tax cuts to ease the economic crisis. Infrastructure earned the same dismal grade in 2005, but the group’s estimated five-year price tag to fix it rose by $600 billion to $2.2 trillion. Earlier this month, the engineers estimated that the president’s stimulus package contained some $90 billion in infrastructure spending. It called that amount a down payment that was long overdue. The group, which represents 146,000 engineers, assesses the nation’s infrastructure every four years. It has helped draw attention to what many experts say is the United States’ haphazard approach to building and repairing the economy’s backbone. ‘Crumbling infrastructure has a direct impact on our personal and economic health, and the nation’s infrastructure crisis is endangering our future prosperity,’ the group’s president, D. Wayne Klotz, said in a statement. ‘Our leaders are looking for solutions […]