John Hennessy III,
P.E.
Early in the morning on Wednesday, November 9th, President-Elect Donald Trump emerged victorious after a highly controversial campaign. The win came as a surprise to many, forcing stakeholders across the infrastructure industries to re-think the future in terms of policy, funding, and political will. Below are a few highlights that offer an idea of the broad spectrum of reactions within the infrastructure world.
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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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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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With more than 450,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines (not including distribution lines), the US electricity grid is clearly a behemoth. But how many times have you really given a thought to this huge, incredible network that generates electricity, carries it miles and miles, and powers our Netflix binges, our holiday lights, and our refrigerators? Here’s the breakdown, from the Energy Department:
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Americans take 300 million trips on the U.S. Interstate System every day. Getting where we want to go requires a network of reliable roads and bridges and that takes money. How much money is America spending to maintain and operate the US Interstate System safely? Are we investing enough to keep up with America’s growing population? Those are just two of the critical questions Congress wants a new committee to answer.
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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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AMERICAN COUNCIL OF ENGINEERING COMPANIES (ACEC) By Alan Joch At a time of prolonged economic uncertainty, the stakes in this year’s election couldn’t be higher. Here’s a guide to help engineers weigh the industry impact of each candidate’s economic proposals As we near the 2016 presidential election, many executives remain concerned about the future strength […]
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Imagine: No water to drink, or even to make coffee with. No water to shower, flush the toilet, or do laundry. Hospitals would close without water. Firefighters couldn’t put out fires and farmers couldn’t water their crops.
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