Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » Civil Engineers: USA Infrastructure Needs Improvement

August 27, 2006

Civil Engineers: USA Infrastructure Needs Improvement

Experts warn U.S. is coming apart at the seams by Chuck McCutcheon:

The American Society of Civil Engineers last year graded the nation “D” for its overall infrastructure conditions, estimating that it would take $1.6 trillion over five years to fix the problem.

“I thought [Hurricane] Katrina was a hell of a wake-up call, but people are missing the alarm,” said Casey Dinges, the society’s managing director of external affairs.

It will take much longer than 5 years: there is no way over $300 billion is available each year to catch up. Infrastructure is not an exciting area to invest in but just like skipping preventative maintenance on equipment will cost organizations more in the long run, failing to invest in maintaining the infrastructure will cost more.

“Infrastructure deficiencies will further erode our global competitiveness, but with the federal budget so committed to mandatory spending, it’s unclear how we are going to deal with this challenge as we fall further and further behind in addressing these problems,”

These “grade” evaluations are a bit flaky: what does a D mean for the USA (they define it as “poor” which still doesn’t mean much)? Still, it is clear the ASCE sees a need for improvement. Related: 2005 ASCE report - Concord Coalition

by curiouscat Tags: Economics, Engineering, Students
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2 Responses to “Civil Engineers: USA Infrastructure Needs Improvement”

Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » New York Steam Pipes Says:
July 19th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
[...] a year ago I posted about the civil engineering report that the USA Infrastructure Needs Improvement. Why the heck does New York have steam pipes, anyway? It turns out that Con Ed has been piping [...]
Failing Infrastructure in the USA at Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog Says:
June 28th, 2008 at 8:06 am
“America invests a mere 2.4% of GDP in infrastructure, compared with 5% in Europe and 9% in China, and the distribution of that money is misguided…”