Deteriorating Transportation Infrastructure Could Cost America $3.1 Trillion

[poiuytrewq0987]

New tires add up. That's the finding of a report issued Wednesday by the American Society for Civil Engineers, which tallies up the cost of our decaying surface transportation infrastructure, from potholes to rusting bridges to buses that never come.

The engineers found that overall, the cost of failing to invest more in the nation's roads and bridges would total $3.1 trillion in lost GDP growth by 2020. For workers, the toll of investing only at current levels would be equally daunting: 877,000 jobs would also be lost. Already, the report found, deficient and deteriorating surface transportation cost us $130 billion in 2010.

By and large those costs would not come from the more dramatic failings of America's transportation system -- like the collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minnesota -- but more mundane or even invisible problems. The minivan that hits a pothole chips away at a family's income. The clogged highway that drains away an extra half hour of a trucker's day also drives up the cost of shipping for businesses.

Congestion, the report found, is of particular cause for concern. Already, 40 percent of urban interstates have capacity deficiencies. Currently, that costs us $27 billion a year in lost time and other inefficiencies wasted on the roads. By 2020, that number could grow tenfold, reaching $276 billion a year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0...tml?1311795208

[The Lawspeaker]

Lovely... who is all going to pay for all that ?

[poiuytrewq0987]

Lovely... who is all going to pay for all that ?

Withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan. Priorities need to be refocused.

[The Lawspeaker]

Withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan. Priorities need to be refocused.

Agreed.. but they still haven't got enough money then.. not with that crippling debt.

[poiuytrewq0987]

Agreed.. but they still haven't got enough money then.. not with that crippling debt.

The defense budget during Bush was somewhere at $800 billion but under Obama it increased to $1 trillion. If the "anti-war" candidate that was Obama could withdraw from the Middle East and reduce the military budget by more than half then the US will be back at the top easily.

[The Lawspeaker]

The defense budget during Bush was somewhere at $800 billion but under Obama it increased to $1 trillion. If the "anti-war" candidate that was Obama could withdraw from the Middle East and reduce the military budget by more than half then the US will be back at the top easily.

Could pulling out the troops AND privatising AMTRAK and most Interstates work ?

[poiuytrewq0987]

Could pulling out the troops AND privatising AMTRAK and most Interstates work ?

If Amtrak was privatised the company would go out of business. We already put out contracts for maintenance of existing roads and the building of new ones. Just a matter of finding money to fund those contracts... not sure if leaving it to the private companies will help.

[The Lawspeaker]

If Amtrak was privatised the company would go out of business. We already put out contracts for maintenance of existing roads and the building of new ones. Just a matter of finding money to fund those contracts... not sure if leaving it to the private companies will help.

Well.. then they could keep Amtrak for the time being but privatise interstates. It's a bit weird that a lot of those interstates can be used for free while America is such a vast country. You can't have relatively low taxes and an A-grade transportation system. Someone will have to pay for it.