John Hennessy III,
P.E.
This paper confronts perceived infrastructure failings with the data on public and private real infrastructure spending over recent decades. Interestingly, the data do not immediately point to a specific explanation for the poor perceived state of infrastructure. Accordingly, we turn to some possibilities that might explain the gap, such as changes in infrastructure needs and the quality of infrastructure spending.
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Financial Needs for Water and Wastewater Infrastructure in Indiana (2015–2034) is an assessment of water and wastewater infrastructure needs in Indiana. This study is sponsored by the Indiana Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (IACIR) and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA). The Indiana Association of Regional Councils provided research assistance. The Indiana Finance Authority State Revolving Loan Programs (SRF), U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development – Indiana (USDA RD), ACEC Indiana Funding Sources Committee, and the Indiana Rural Wastewater Task Force provided additional assistance and important feedback during the effort.
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“I think as engineers sometimes things just seem very logical—this would seem very logical to take care of this infrastructure that there was such a large investment in to begin with—but there are a lot of emotional and political reasons why that doesn’t happen, and they tend to get discounted. I think the people who are interested in improving infrastructure need to understand that, and try to respond to that rather than dismiss it as illogical or something along those lines.”
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Keeping the wheel steady on America’s roads and highways has become increasingly challenging as drivers encounter potholes and pavement deterioration. Nearly one-third of the nation’s major urban roadways – highways and major streets that are the main routes for commuters and commerce – are in poor condition. These critical links in the nation’s transportation system carry 70 percent of the approximately 3.1 trillion miles driven annually in America.
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“I think it’s the first time in recent history that we’ve seen two presidential candidates talk about the infrastructure needs and willingness to address the infrastructure funding deficit…So we really feel like the public is starting to get more engaged, starting to understand that we do have infrastructure needs around the country and are willing to come to the table to have serious discussions to figure out how to solve these problems.”
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An inadequate transportation system costs Nevada motorists a total of $3.2 billion every year in the form of additional vehicle operating costs (VOC), congestion-related delays and traffic crashes.
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Functional or not, the dams that dot the country cannot simply be ignored or forgotten. Indeed, these dams pose a significant safety problem: ASCE classifies nearly 4,000 dams as “deficient.” Furthermore, these structures continue to block an estimated 600,000 miles of rivers in the United States. A new analysis by the Center for American Progress for this report demonstrates that dams and reservoirs have modified the flow of 71 percent of Western rivers by length and that Western rivers are 66 percent more fragmented than they would be in their natural state.
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Many midsize and large cities throughout the United States, including the Midwest and Northeast, have lost a substantial percentage of their population. These cities face the challenge of a corresponding decline in utility revenues from a loss of ratepayers, which makes it difficult to address their water infrastructure needs. Overall, water and wastewater utilities across the United States face substantial costs to maintain, upgrade, or replace aging and deteriorating infrastructure—approximately $655 billion for water and wastewater utilities over the next 20 years according to EPA’s most recent estimates.
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Reason Foundation’s 22nd Annual Highway Report tracks the performance of the 50 state-owned highway systems. States are ranked in 11 categories including Interstate and rural primary road pavement conditions, deficient bridges, traffic congestion, fatality rates, unsafe narrow rural arterial lanes, capital costs per mile, administrative costs per mile, maintenance costs per mile and total highway expenditures per mile.
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The poll found that a majority of Americans recognize the declining state of the nation’s infrastructure as an issue that should be addressed, and nearly half (46 percent) of respondents said that U.S. infrastructure has gotten worse in the last five years. Roads and bridges top the list of sectors of the nation’s infrastructure in extreme need of repair, but registered voters also believe that repairs should be made to railways, dams and water pipelines.
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