Fractured Priorities
USA Gets a D in Infrastructure
Civil Engineers Deliver the Bad News
"The overall grade for the nation's infrastructure is again a D and the cost to bring it up to good condition has risen to $2.2 trillion. In more than a decade, the United States has made no measurable progress in improving either the condition or performance of our roads, bridges, water systems or other vital infrastructure when viewed in aggregate."
American Society of Civil Engineers, 2009 Report Card on U.S. Infrastructure
Read it and weep. This the nation's infrastructure report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers. We're not doing too well. Maybe our fearless leaders of the last 40 years forgot their glasses or got into some of that Indian Hemp that George Washington talked about. Without any doubt, they were not paying attention to the fundamentals.
While Wall Street gangsters raided the Treasury and Bush-Cheney invested over a trillion in destroying then "rebuilding" Iraq, the bridges, levees, power grid, and other vital elements of the United States infrastructure moved to a point of near collapse.
The Obama infrastructure package contains $300 plus billion to start this repair process. This is the first comprehensive program for infrastructure since the mid 1950's and a down payment on the $2.2 trillion required for the entire project.
Here's what we face according to the association representing engineers who will get the job done.
Welcome to the future -- if we fail to act
Port Huron, Michigan offers a glimpse of the future if we fail to act on thevial repairs to the infrastructure of the United States. mdprovost cc
