The Ailing American Infrastructure
In 2005, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave a report card grade of ‘D’ for the state of American infrastructure. A grade of ‘D’ is considered poor, and the association had calculated an estimate of $1.6 trillion would have been required over five years from 2005 to improve the state of American infrastructure. American sewers are overflowing, bridges and surface roads aging, increasing traffic congestion and many other signs of a decaying American infrastructure which once propelled the United States to become the world’s preeminent superpower.
Recently on August 1, 2007, a four-lane highway bridge in Minnesota collapsed with at least four fatalities and multiple people injured. The reason for collapsing is most likely due to structural weakening after being opened for about 40 years. On July 18, 2007, an 83-year-old steam pipe in New York City exploded with only one fatality but with many injured. In a 2003 report, the National Resource Defense Council found American drinking water to be generally at risk from pollution, aging pipes and outdated treatment facilities. According to the council, most American pipes were established in the pre-World War I era meaning most US cities have water systems nearing 100 years old. In August of 2003, the Northeastern part of North America experienced a mass blackout shutting down much of Northeastern and Midwestern states in the US while affecting much of Ontario, Canada. The incident itself can be described as infrastructural failure as well as well-developed infrastructure. The power grid system was designed to respond to power surges which endangered the safety of nuclear power plants thus causing in part the cascading blackout, but the failure of American energy companies to cope with the surging demand of American citizens allowed for the blackout to occur. In part, the federal budget allocated to the power grid system has been receding allowing for poor maintenance and lack of new power sources to supplement decommissioning power plants. In 2006, Queens, New York had experienced a miniature blackout as the energy company ConEd has been unable to resolve increasing power demands of New Yorkers. Just as recent as summer of 2007, another short lived blackout occurred in Upper East Side of Manhattan proving the incapacity of energy companies like ConEd to meet with surging energy demands.
While American infrastructure is ailing and generally becoming unable to cope with the demands of the 21st century, countries in Asia and Europe have begun or had begun to improve their infrastructure ranging from transportation to electrical grids to universal wireless access. As countries industrialized and developing across the globe pour money into their infrastructure, America on the other hand has been taking money out of the budget. Recent bills have slashed budgets for education, transportation, water treatment and scientific research. How can the United States, a superpower that rode on the backbone of its well-developed infrastructure, now neglect the state of the nation? At this rate, how can we prepare our future generations for the 21st century with things of the past?
Though I must admit that part of the shortcomings is a result of global climate change, politicians and citizens should start addressing the issues that endanger the structural foundations of this nation. Citizens of the United States should start pressing their representatives to care more about the state of the nation rather than meddling in affairs of foreign countries, or debating on polarized non-substantial bipartisan issues. Politicians should stop expending the American taxpayers’ budget on funding foreign nations with armaments, recede funding to an ever-leveling progress curve of the American military, obviously increase funding to infrastructural projects, and maintain American competitiveness through pragmatic solutions. Certainly, many more advice can be written and I hope readers would give such advice to their representatives. I hope out of tragedies like that of the collapse of the Minnesota highway bridge politicians would finally take up notice of the ailing American infrastructure and revamp it to meet the needs of the 21st century; otherwise, the United States might eventually be left to the trappings of past times.
Kevin Yan, a writer for The Fourth Estate based in New York City and Boston.