Situation: Critical

From collapsed bridges to leaking dams, American infrastructure is facing real decline. US Infrastructure's Matt Buttell investigates real life problems for America's roads, bridges and transit lines, and asks, "What’s next?"

“Many problems are widely known, and work is long overdue. We need to begin rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure somewhere”

Welcome to the Circle Interchange near downtown Chicago, Illinois. Also known as the Spaghetti Bowl, this express interchange sits between the Dan Ryan, Eisenhower and Kennedy expressways, its name referring to the curving ramps that appear to form concentric rings when viewed from above. It is an intricate design, logically defined as a stack interchange, allowing turning off in all directions, with each of the four main lines having a single entrance and exit to serve both directions of the crossing highway.

Following its construction at the same time as the Kennedy expressway, the Circle Interchange went on to make history when, in 1965, the University of Illinois opened a new campus to the southwest of the junction. Calling this new site the Chicago Circle, the freeway interchange became the only one in the world to have a university named after it.

However, the Circle Interchange is also notoriously known for its lengthy traffic jams. Local reports often reference miles of gridlock populating the junction, and, on the day of writing this very article, a police squad car was reported to have “hydroplaned into a wall” by the Chicago Sun Times, where, despite no injuries, hours of delays occurred. Since 2004 the interchange has also been rated as the country’s third-worst traffic bottleneck. Approximately 300,000 vehicles use the junction every day, losing a combined 25 million hours stuck in its jams each year.

It’s a pretty harsh reality, but the Circle Interchange is just one example of the state of US infrastructure and its extreme need of a radical overhaul. But now, even as stimulus money and the forthcoming federal transportation bill promises to provide big injections for roads, bridges and transit lines, experts warn that looming budget deficits could still make it difficult to deliver the long-term investment that most people believe is necessary.

“Usually, until there’s a disaster, you don’t see this kind of political will, this push to make something happen,” said Ramzi Mahmood, chair of the civil engineering department at California State University, in a statement he made in January. And even then the impact can be short-lived. Take when the levees in New Orleans failed in 2005, for example. While at the time this led to widespread outrage, many of the nation’s levees still remain unaccounted for, without an index of stability, let alone an inspection. And look at the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis two years ago, following which, there has been little attempt to increase the rate of repair or replacement for the thousands of these structurally deficient roadways.

However, this year, the implosion of the US economy seems to be compelling infrastructure reform, and the timing, experts say, is perfect. “Any expenditure into infrastructure today is an investment in and of itself,” detailed Mahmood. “Infrastructure investment is also an investment in our quality of life, as at the same time it creates a lot of opportunities and jobs that are needed to really prime this economy.”

Sustainability
While it remains the case that no one can predict which bridge, levee or water main will fail next, many problems are widely known, and work is long overdue. After all, we need to begin rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure somewhere.

Much of the modern day infrastructure in American was actually built at the start of the twentieth century during the greatest age of construction the world has ever seen. Iconic landmarks such as the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge, along with the interstate highway systems were all completed during this investment-crazy, prolific era; and all of this was closely matched by the development of thousands of smaller bridges, water tunnels and roadways across the nation. The truth, however, is that these investments were made too long ago, and the reality that Americans now need to face up to is that their infrastructure is in real trouble.

America has been living off an inheritance of steel-and-concrete marvels for too long, and fresh investment by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act offers an opportunity for redress. But while more funds are definitely needed, how that money is going to be spent is actually proving to be equally (if not more) important than getting those funds secured in the first place. Furthermore, experts argue that while new information technology, fresh engineering and advanced materials can help the US not just restore but improve its infrastructure, America must first gather the drive to get there.

Back in February of this year, for example, at the National Governors Association’s Winter Meeting, Bruce Katz, Vice President and Director of the Metropolitan Policy Program, discussed with fellow governors the need for a stronger infrastructure across the US – and, more importantly, the reason why this must result in a sustainable future for the nation. “Put simply, our infrastructure is in bad shape,” he said in his opening speech. “From nearly 2000 ‘high hazard potential’ dams, to the 60 percent of urban roadways that are in a ‘less than fair’ condition, to the 72,000 bridges that are considered ‘structurally deficient’, it is not hyperbole to say that our infrastructure is crumbling before our eyes.”

Also noted by Katz is the fact that in addition to its condition, the very design of America’s infrastructure is quickly becoming obsolete. The nation’s air traffic control system, for example, is so outdated that it is considered one of the primary reasons why the US has been unable to make a dent in its airport congestion problems. Further issues relating to current transit systems continue to lay off hundreds of workers every year because they neither have the ability to cope with skyrocketing demand nor the resources to operate the existing system.

Then there are the American water systems, currently in such bad condition that leaking pipes lose seven billion gallons of clean drinking water every day, and, further to this, today’s average American driver is wasting 26 gallons of fuel each year due to traffic congestion. This adds up to three billion gallons every year, which is the equivalent of one-fifth of a year’s imported oil from the Persian Gulf. In fact infrastructure-related expenditures continue to cost American households over a trillion dollars annually, mostly in categories such as utilities and transportation. After housing, transportation is the second-largest component of the average family’s household budget, with 18 cents out of every dollar spent here.

But just how is the country going to take advantage of the promise for a new commitment to infrastructure? How is America going to repair what is broken and set the nation on a new path of a cleaner, greener future? The answer isn’t a simple one. Despite the recent commitment to infrastructure as part of the recovery package, the federal government is struggling to respond to these major challenges. At the precise time when the nation desperately needs to prioritize its limited investments and resources, the response has been to keep throwing money at the problem without any real purpose, targeting or accountability.

The biggest issue for Katz is that the federal government is absent where it should be present, and is failing to lead on infrastructure issues of national significance. As he explains: “We are simply incapable of focusing on infrastructure issues that transcend state borders and therefore we’re not experiencing the same kinds of economic impacts from transformational programs like the interstates […] the social impacts from iconic programs like rural electrification […] or the sustainability benefits from air and water pollution control programs in the 1970s and 1980s.”

Katz also details the ongoing problem of compartmentalizing policies on all levels. He argues that while families understand that issues related to transportation, housing and education are all intrinsically linked, policymakers continue to keep these issues separated by placing them in specialized agencies. “In stark contrast to this,” says Katz, “our global counterparts are beginning to provide the kind of leadership on infrastructure that many are now calling on the US government to demonstrate. And we need to learn from our global competitors in order to get more strategic, integrated and disciplined.”

In Canada, India, South Africa and Italy, for instance, governments have introduced specialist units throughout various agencies to assist with the expanding opportunities for public/private partnerships. Elsewhere, in France, they have recently merged their Ministry of Transport with the Ministry of Ecology, Energy and Sustainable Development; in Australia there is now an overarching Department of Infrastructure; Japan links infrastructure with land development and tourism, all in one agency; and other countries, including the UK and Germany are already establishing intricate networks of data, metrics, tools and techniques so that they can make educated infrastructural investment decisions based on clear priorities. “In America, change needs to come,” says Katz.

Legacy
Until the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge (officially known as Bridge 9340) collapsed on 1 August 2007, it had served as a transportation lifeline for the growing Twin Cities population, carrying across many of the SUVs, cars and trucks that accounted for the 42 percent rise in Minnesota’s vehicle traffic between 1990 and 2003. The bridge, an eight-lane steel construction, was exactly 40 years old when it plunged into the Mississippi River two years ago.

Much has been documented about the collapse over the last two years: 13 people were killed, 145 injured; and within a few days of the collapse the Minnesota DOT had announced plans for a replacement bridge, the I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge, which opened on September 18, 2008.

However, the bridge’s age and heavy use are by no means isolated conditions, nor is it just America’s roads and bridges that are being pushed to breaking point. Just weeks before the collapse of Bridge 9340, underground in Manhattan, a steam pipe which had been installed to heat nearby offices in 1924 exploded beneath Grand Central Terminal propelling a giant jet of scalding brownish steam toward the sky. One person died, 30 were injured and New Yorkers were left scrambling for cover. Then, in April of this year, governors in Illinois announced that they would consider a bill that would require community notification when drinking water is contaminated after it was discovered that for more than 20 years residents may have been exposed to contaminated well water due to neglect and bad management.

The issues surrounding the critical state of America’s infrastructure are multilayered and complex. One argument is that the country’s infrastructure has not expanded with its population, and that it was never designed to handle such a high density of people. In fact, reports show that the growth of the US’s population far outpaces growth in infrastructure, while other densely populated countries such as Japan don’t seem to have this problem because they were highly-populated countries long before modern technology was available. Therefore, as technology became available (like subways and  the engineering capability to dig huge water management systems) these countries already had the knowledge of what would be put on the infrastructure and built it accordingly. In the US, however, it was never intended that current infrastructure should need to support such a large population.

What’s more, according to a new report co-published by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and Ernst & Young, the US truly needs to rethink its outdated regional infrastructure planning process and create a viable framework, or face compromising its ability to compete in a global marketplace.

The findings echo those sentiments made by both Mahmood and Katz and the report, entitled Infrastructure 2008: A Competitive Advantage, which touches on the infrastructure needs in several of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, highlights the consequences of inadequate federal policy and guidelines that have resulted in “a mish-mash of disconnected regional management approaches.”

The pulls-no-punches report says the US is headed downward, and needs to wake up to the dire state of its infrastructure, cautioning that, “political will may only emerge when people face imminent reward or immediate risk”. It also estimates that the US has at least a $170 billion annual funding gap in addition to its outmoded land use and infrastructure models. “America heads for a crisis in the next 10 years if nothing is done,” the report warns.

“It is increasingly clear that the infrastructure funding gap will need to be addressed with public/private partnerships,” says Dale Reiss, Global Director of Real Estate at Ernst & Young in New York City. “If the US fails to embrace this model, it could lead to our economy falling behind more of our global competitors.”

“Infrastructure investment and development are having stronger-than-ever implications for urban growth patterns,” adds Richard Rosan, President ULI Worldwide. “If we continue to minimize transportation infrastructure as a federal priority, we are setting our urban areas up for decline, rather than prosperity. This country simply cannot afford to keep treating infrastructure as an afterthought.”

And therein lies the biggest issue of all. America once had a transportation system that was the envy of the world. Now it is more likely that America is better known for its congested highways, second-rate ports, third-rate passenger trains and a rather archaic air traffic control system. The majority of America’s greatest projects of the 20th century – dams and canal locks, bridges and tunnels, aquifers and aqueducts – are at or are beyond their designated life span. The haunting images of contorted pavements, stranded vehicles, twisted girders and heroic rescues which continue to punctuate our news reports following the buckling of a bridge or the breaking of the levees stand as a harsh reminder that our infrastructure cannot be taken for granted.

The fact is that America can afford to have world-class infrastructure, but first it needs to publicly acknowledge the responsibility of neglecting the bridges, roads and other essential hardware that have for too long gone unloved. Then, and only then, can the country hold its leaders accountable for setting priorities and for policing what is required to repair its already fragile infrastructure.

Lake Okeechobee, Florida
Three years ago, experts announced that in any given year there is a one in six chance that the Herbert Hoover Dike will fail, releasing waters from Lake Okeechobee. The result of such an event would result in South Florida’s water supply becoming contaminated and leave over 40,000 waterside residents flooded. In 2008, a 1000-foot long stretch of treacherously eroded land was found near state-owned floodgates north of Okeechobee. Nonetheless, for the 2009 budget year, the government only allotted half of the requested money needed for improvements.

Brooklyn Bridge, New York
As one of the oldest suspension bridges still being used in the United States, the Brooklyn Bridge is considered as ‘structurally deficient’ under the federal rating systems. But, while officials do not fear a collapse of the bridge – the main span appears to be sound – some of the approaches to the structure have been marred with rusting steel and deteriorating road decks. However, repairs are due in 2010, symbolising that a country serious about its infrastructure is prepared to take care of its national icons.

Alaskan Way Viaduct, Seattle
There’s still no decision as to whether replacing the roadway with a tunnel or improved surface roads is the best option, despite the earthquake that damaged the structure happening eight years ago. Meanwhile, every day as many as 110,000 vehicles are travelling on the compromised structure, a traffic artery in downtown Seattle whose supports subsided by five inches after the earthquake weakened the structure.

Dover Bridge, Idaho
In 2008, a 30 x 30 inch piece of the Dover Bridge’s deck was found hanging by its rebar, and in the National Bridge Inventory the bridge scored a appallingly low sufficiency rating of two of out 100. 5000 vehicles continue to use the bridge everyday, putting drivers at risk. To replace the bridge would cost $25 million, but such funding is yet to materialize.

O’Hare International Airport, Chicago
Between 2001 and 2006, O’Hare International Airport saw 68 runway incursions, with three close calls in March 2006 alone. A year later, the airport had the country’s worst record of on-time departures with fewer than 65 percent of flights leaving on time. While reconfiguring the multiple crossing runways could help, it would cost millions.