Emergency Care

Urgent action is needed if the crisis in US infrastructure is not to infect the entire nation, says Wayne Klotz.

“The deficit between funding and investment needs over five years is $1.1 trillion”
-Wayne Klotz

Infrastructure in the US is in critical condition, and the signs are everywhere. One-third of America’s major roads are not in good condition and 45 percent of major urban highways are congested. Leaking pipes lose an estimated seven billion gallons of clean, treated drinking water daily. More than 25 percent of the nation’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, and the number of deficient dams has risen to over 4000. The increasing volume of electronic equipment and lack of uniform regulations for disposal is creating the potential for high levels of hazardous materials and heavy metals in the nation’s landfills. Further, despite lessons learned from widely publicized disasters, many of the nation’s levees are on the verge of failure, placing businesses, homes and lives at risk.

Substandard roads, water pipes, dams, and other infrastructure systems drain resources, inhibit commerce, and threaten public safety, welfare, and the environment. Americans everywhere are feeling the impact of a failing infrastructure. Even more distressing, we were warned. For a decade, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), a longtime watchdog of the nation’s infrastructure, has been issuing a Report Card for America’s Infrastructure that assesses the state of the infrastructure in the US and assigns grades to 15 critical areas, including roads, bridges, drinking and waste water, and schools. Each category is evaluated on the basis of capacity, condition, funding, future need, operation and maintenance, public safety, and resilience.

Decreased federal leadership, aging systems, explosive population growth, public and political opposition to development of effective solutions, a “patch-and-pray” mentality, and funding issues have caused a dangerous decline in our infrastructure. Despite warnings raised by ASCE in 1998, 2001, and 2005, no significant progress has been made in improving either the condition or performance of the nation’s infrastructure. Now, decades of inattention and underfunding have left the US in a state of crisis where many of the systems are unable to consistently provide the level of service and safety the population demands.

By the numbers
The 2005 Report Card assigned a D to the overall condition of the nation’s infrastructure and recommended spending $1.6 trillion over five years to improve conditions. Federal funding, however, has not met the recommended level. When the most recent Report Card was issued in January 2009, the overall grade was again a D, and the needed five-year investment had risen to $2.2 trillion. In area after area, costs continue to outpace available funds. It is estimated that across all categories, the deficit between funding and investment needs over five years is $1.1 trillion.

The numbers are staggering, and represent a real and dangerous threat to the nation’s economy and the public’s health. Americans, for example, spend 4.2 billion hours a year in traffic at a cost to the economy of $78.2 billion – that’s $710 per motorist. Poor conditions cost motorists another $67 billion a year in repairs and operating costs. Current spending of $70.3 billion per year for highway capital improvements is well below the estimated $186 billion needed annually to substantially improve conditions. The rail system is no better, as the Federal Transit Administration estimates $15.8 billion is needed annually to maintain current conditions and $21.6 billion is needed to improve to good conditions.

The cost to replace the present system of locks in inland waterways is estimated at more than $125 billion, and estimates put the cost at more than $100 billion to repair and rehabilitate the nation’s levees. A $17 billion annual investment is needed to substantially improve current bridge conditions – currently, only $10.5 billion is spent annually on the construction and maintenance of bridges.

America’s drinking water systems face an annual shortfall of at least $11 billion to replace aging facilities that are near the end of their useful life, and the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the nation must invest $290 billion to update or replace existing wastewater systems and build new ones to meet growing demand.

The current recession in the United States has put hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work and left critical infrastructure projects across the country incomplete. With unemployment figures rising, Americans are looking to President Obama to not only revitalize the US economy, but to create and keep more jobs in the United States. The $850 billion Economic Stimulus Plan proposed by President Obama is intended to address the nation’s needs and fuel the economy. While the $100 billion stimulus funding allocated to the infrastructure is an important first step, given the estimated $1.1 trillion finding gap, the plan isn’t a cure-all for the employment and infrastructure crisis and must not be treated as such. At best, it’s a down payment.

Nonetheless, the nation’s infrastructure has not seen this level of leadership and support in decades. But it is only one piece of the complex puzzle that must include continued focus on the infrastructure crisis long after the stimulus package is invested. As an important step to bolstering the nation’s economic stability, this stimulus package must supplement, rather than replace, long-term solutions such as regular appropriations and scheduled reauthorizations that will ultimately rebuild America’s world-class infrastructure.

The path to restoration
Federal funding alone won’t fix the failing systems – it is only the beginning. Restoring America’s infrastructure to the level needed to support economic prosperity, health and safety, and quality of life will require a compelling national vision that is based in bold federal leadership and that is shared by all levels of government and the private sector. It will require a range of solutions, including advances in technology, regulatory changes, wise community planning, cooperation of state and local governments, and involved citizens willing to partner with the government to make real changes.

The stimulus investments can begin to address the nation’s crumbling infrastructure and provide significant and lasting benefits for both business and the public, but only if projects are selected wisely and applied to areas that most require federal support. In setting the investment priorities, projects must be selected on the basis of their ability to create and retain jobs; solve the most pressing problems; and deliver measurable improvements in public health, safety, and quality of life.

Investments must provide long-term benefits to the public and can be steered in the right direction by focusing on rehabilitating worn-out infrastructure to increase safety and building new infrastructure to keep the nation competitive in the global economy. Further, projects should provide substantial, broad-based economic benefit; be designed and built in a sustainable and cost-effective manner; reflect life-cycle costs; and have significant environmental benefits such as area restoration, improved air quality through reduced congestion, and better watershed management.

A healthier future
Infrastructure has a direct impact on personal and economic health. An unhealthy infrastructure cannot support a healthy economy, and the infrastructure crisis is endangering America’s future prosperity. Given the limited funding, rising expenses, and the ever-increasing backlog, attention must be turned toward finding ways to reduce overall costs. Innovative construction methods and materials are key to the health of our nation’s infrastructure. Investing in research now will drive the development of cost-effective solutions in the future.

Federal investment must be used to complement, encourage, and leverage investment from state and local governments as well as from the private sector, and users of the infrastructure must be willing to pay the appropriate price. Further, all levels of government, owners, and users must renew their commitment to infrastructure investments in all categories. This includes developing and authorizing innovative financing programs that not only make resources available, but also encourage the most effective and efficient use of those resources.

The nation’s once great infrastructure is failing. If investments are not made now, the consequences and the cost to the American people will be exponentially higher in the long run. However, with the right kind of vision and leadership, the challenges facing US infrastructure are solvable.

Wayne Klotz, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE began his tenure as President of the American Society of Civil Engineers in November 2008. Founded in 1852, ASCE represents more than 146,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national engineering society. Klotz has served as president of Klotz Associates Inc. since 1985, when he founded the company. The firm currently employs more than 120 professionals in offices in San Antonio, Austin, Houston and Lufkin, and in 2003 and 2004, it was named to The Zweig Letter’s “Hot Firm List” of the 100 fastest-growing architectural, engineering, planning and environmental firms in the country.