7 USA Infrastructure in Dire Need of Repair

The current administration proposed a US$2 Trillion infrastructure investment to fix America’s aging and crumbling bridges, roads, public transportation, railways, water infrastructures.

The infrastructure problem in the U.S. has been massive and well-known for decades, but how will spending be prioritized?

The New York Times provided a list of U.S. infrastructure that is in desperate need of repair.

1. Deteriorating rail tunnels under the Hudson River. The tunnel that connects New York and New Jersey is 111 years old, and saltwater entered it during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Officials have been asking to rebuild the infrastructure because its failure could lead to a massive economic impact that would send ripples far beyond the region.
   
   
2. The creaky Brent Spence Bridge in Cincinnati. The bridge is built in the 1960s and suffers considerable rust. In the 1990s, the bridge has been labelled “functionally obsolete.”
   
   
3. Crumbling schools vulnerable to earthquakes in Puerto Rico.  In Southern Puerto Rico, the earthquake on January 7, 2020, has shattered school buildings and has left others more structurally unsafe, keeping the kids away from school a few months before the pandemic hit. The article says that the collapse is related to a type of architectural design that makes it vulnerable to tremors.
   
   
4. Hundreds of closed rural bridges.  In the U.S., it’s not only the major bridges that need repair but also rural bridges that account for 71% of all their bridges. From it, 79% are rated as flawed or structurally unsound.
   
   
5. Water crisis in Mississippi. After the Texas winter storm, water problems became evident when residents received notices to boil their water for weeks. According to the article, the steady departure of white residents in the area has affected its tax base, affecting the funding to repair the city’s old and broken pipes.
   
   
6. Dams are increasingly battered by climate change.  According to the article, most of the country’s 91 thousand dams are more than 50 years old, and “many are just a rainfall way from a potential disaster.” Increasing natural events could damage these dams, placing the growing residential developments downstream at very high risk.
   
   
7. Levees that can no longer consistently hold. Although the infrastructure plan did not explicitly mention levees, breaches in levees have caused massive losses in properties and infrastructure. The article says that levees are operated by various organizations consisting of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, levee districts, local governments, and private owners. 
   
   But levees are not enough to contain floods made worse by the changing climate, according to an association of 100 mayors called the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative, which offers a “systemic solution” to the problem. The group of majors suggests “replacing wetlands, reconnecting backwaters to the main river and opening up areas for natural flooding.”

Perhaps the more important question is how soon these badly needed repairs will take place?

Former president of the American Society of Civil Engineers Greg Di Loreto, “It’s a dire need.”

Every four years, the society releases a report card of America’s infrastructure. The 2020 report card rates, the U.S. infrastructure a C-minus, a little better than two decades of Ds, the New York time reports.

According to the news outlet, the $2 trillion budget also represents 1% of the country’s GDP for each of the next eight years.  

As infrastructure plays a crucial role in society and the economy, further postponing critical repair and maintenance can have significantly dire consequences.