Obama’s Plan May Keep the Cement Flowing
by Jared Levy on September 8th, 2010
On Monday, President Obama announced a six-year, $50 billion infrastructure proposal to a fired-up crowd in Milwaukee. Even though we may not have the money, repairs are still needed.
The United States’ highway, bridge, rail and aviation systems have not only allowed this great country’s citizens to travel freely and easily to just about any destination within our borders, but have also made the transport of goods and commodities much easier (and cheaper) over the years. The bulk of these products now make it to their final destinations via tractor trailer. Our constantly-growing interstate highway system, which was born in 1956, is both the largest highway system in the world and the largest public works project in history.
As of 2006, the system had a total length of 46,876 miles (and it continues to grow every day). Our roadways have supported us through several wars and have been instrumental in supporting the economy of this country, both figuratively and literally.
Unfortunately, a large part of that system (and many other U.S. roads) are aging, some reaching the end of their useful life spans. This may not only mean bad traffic delays, like the re-decking of NY’sTappan Zee bridge, but can also cause extremely dangerous situations and catastrophes, like what we saw in Minneapolis in 2007.
According to the AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials), bridges that were constructed in the mid-20th century were built to last 50 years, the bulk of the nation’s 590,000 bridges are 43 years old, and 74,000 bridges (that’s 12.4%) are classified as “structurally deficient,” meaning that one or more aspects of a bridge’s structural condition require attention. At the same time, truck traffic has nearly doubled in the past 20 years, and the trucking industry is pushing for heavier loads, which puts greater strain on our bridges and highways and would accelerate their rate of decay.
In addition to our crumbling highways and deficient bridges, the U.S., in many areas, lacks in mass transit systems and high-speed rail lines (other than in very limited areas). Many of our airports use antiquated technology to manage navigation and traffic control, which can lead to some serious, perhaps unnecessary delays. Perhaps those delays helped push that JetBlue flight attendant over the edge last month?
