US Infrastructure Gets "D" from Civil Engineers

America's infrastructure is lousy according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, a group in a position to know. Bearing in mind that civil engineers make their living from building and maintaining that infrastructure, some of the findings in their latest report card can be discounted as bidding for the public purse but not all of it. It will cost $1.6 trillion (that's $1,600,000,000,000) over just five years to bring things up to an "acceptable level." Worse are the costs if America doesn't spend the money.

The ASCE's 2005 Report Card for America's Infrastructure looked at fifteen different categories ranging from aviation and security to energy and hazardous waste, for an average grade of D. In 2001, the nation was scored on 12 categories and managed an aggregate D+. The additional categories had slightly positive mathematical effect (public parks and rail transport both got a C-), and one thinks the ASCE was being kind in awarding "security" a grade of "incomplete." A separate report from the Coalition of Airline Pilots Association gave aviation security an F. Only in solid waste did the US of A (a/k/a the greatest country in the world; the shining city on a hill; the last, best hope of earth) do relatively well -- with a C+.

Most troubling was the trend -- only aviation and schools improved. Even there, the increase was hardly heartening. Aviation rose from a D to a D+; schools went from D- to a D. Everything else was either stable at poor levels, or deteriorated. The quality of drinking water fell to D- from D, energy and hazardous waste both declined to D from D+, roads and waste water dropped to D- from D, transit fell to D+ from C-, and the navigable waterways of the nation earned a D- rather than the D+ of 2001.

Patriotism demands a certain degree of shame here. It ought to be better, and the only reason it isn't is a lack of will. America has the biggest economy in the world, a large able-bodied workforce, and management skills capable of maintaining what has been built by those who went before and of designing glories for posterity. Eventually a third world infrastructure creates a third world economy, so the will must arise pretty quick.

The culprit is a two-party system that cannot distinguish between spending for social consumption and spending for social investment. The Democrats worry equally about bridges and midnight basketball for high school dropouts, but the former creates wealth, while the latter produces -- what? For their part, the Republicans want to cut taxes at all costs (starving the beast as the anti-government crowd call it), but the market and private enterprise rely on a functioning infrastructure. This would be a fine time to learn, while the bonds needed can still be floated at low interest rates, while the Asian central banks are prepared to buy them, and while repair rather than replacement is possible.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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