Uh-Oh

I didn't know we were so screwed. I attended a hearing in the House on the state of infrastructure and transit in the USA, and boy are we in trouble. Our infrastructure is in complete disrepair and we have absolutely no cash with which to fix it. We also don't seem to have the political awareness necessary to make any headway on this problem.

According to Representative Jim Oberstar, from Minnesota (if you recall the Minnesota bridge collapse from a couple years ago, you'll realize that perhaps Oberstar has some perspective in this area), "Many aspects of the nation’s highway infrastructure were constructed in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and are reaching the end of their useful design life and will require significant rehabilitation and reconstruction." Compounding this problem, freight traffic increased from 1990 to 2005 by 52.4%.

Now, the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) funds maintenance and repair on the Interstate Highway System, and is funded by the federal gasoline tax, set at 18.4 cents per gallon. This price was set in 1990 and has not been adjusted for inflation, which severely curtails highway maintenance and repair. Considering also that the price of steel has increased by 60% in the last five years and the price of hot mix asphalt has increased by 28% in the last five years (the overall price of construction has increased by 60% in the last five years), you'll see pretty clearly that the HTF is in big trouble. Indeed, it is projected to go into deficit in 2009. So if our highways are in disrepair, and we have absolutely no money to fix the problem, we are pretty screwed. Highways, and I imagine I’ll receive unanimous support here, are fairly important. Of course, John McCain is proposing a federal gas tax "holiday." McCain has already gone through one divorce, and he's going through another one now: with reality.

In today's current political climate, the mere mention of increasing taxation is met with horror. But higher taxation is what is going to be needed to fix our nation's massive infrastructure problem. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates the total cost of fixing the nation's infrastructure at $1.6 trillion. Gasoline tax holiday, huh? Every single witness at the hearing cited the need for more federal support for infrastructure and transit.

Speaking of transit, this came as a surprise: the increased price of gasoline isn't helping. Since our transit systems are in such disrepair as well, increased ridership (as a result of people not driving their cars) has resulted in massive strain. It has been said that increased gas prices are good because they force people to use public transportation, but we have to make sure that our public transportation systems can handle this new influx first. That requires more federal funding.

The bottom line is, if the federal government doesn't help out soon, we're in big trouble.