“If it ain”™t broke, don”™t fix it” appears to be a national mantra, according to a new report by the Urban Land Institute and Ernst and Young that addressed the status of the world”™s infrastructure and concerns.
The report finds the red flags of “deterioration, congestion and reduced reliability” are all waving and no one is willing to pay to make the repairs. No U.S. infrastructure system went unscathed in the report.
The U.S. received mediocre to near-failing marks on its roads, bridges, transit, rail, aviation, power grid, drinking water, wastewater and dams in the report, Infrastructure 2007, A Global Perspective.
Eighty-three percent of the 30 state transportation planning directors surveyed said that America”™s transportation infrastructure is not capable of meeting the nation”™s needs over the next 10 years. They warned that 97 percent of roads, bridges and tunnels and 88 percent of transit/rail systems will require at least “moderate improvement” in the upcoming years. The cost? Well, some $185 billion in additional funding is needed just for the next five years just for that sector of infrastructure.
Putting off repairs can prove costly and onerous. “The state of deferred maintenance is so gargantuan nobody knows where to begin ”¦ States have been putting off these issues to fund other needs ”¦ People will still use roads until they can”™t be used, and as long as the roads work they can put it off.”
To ease the burden on our congested roadways, the report found that “high-population regional corridors need passenger trains, preferably high-speed rail, to provide efficient intercity transport.” And now for the bad news; at least $250 billion will be needed over the next 20 years for the nation to catch up with the rail service quality already existing in Europe and Asia.
Bridges received a mediocre grade in the report, which stated that a collapse doesn”™t have to occur to cause a domino effect. Traffic backups result in the burning of more gasoline along with the delayed arrival of workers to their offices which in turn cuts into productivity.
Our 1950s transportation and community development models are no longer cutting it. We”™re still an auto nation, and that”™s what is also killing us. Office parks, shopping malls, even cul de sacs contribute to us driving cars. Time to rethink as well as repair.
On page 30 of the 65-page report is the infamous Tappan Zee, aka Trap and Zzzzzz.
“Sections are rusting badly, small concrete slabs fall from road beds exposing see-through views of the Hudson River below, as 135,000 cars travel this key suburban route every day. Something has to be done soon: ”˜We”™re studying options,”™ says a state Thruway official, who adds the next step is figuring out how to pay for whatever plan is chosen.”
Ah, yes, those plans; what the heck is taking so long? Those six plans range from a couple of billion dollars all the way up to $14.5 billion when the mass-transit link is included. The report points out that New York state doesn”™t have the money in any contingency kitty and the federal trust fund “hurtles toward insolvency in two years.”
In reading through the report, that light-rail link should probably be part of the Tappan Zee fix so as to alleviate traffic along the I-287 corridor. If driving continues to be the only practical transportation option in many metropolitan areas, no amount of infrastructure investment will be adequate, the report states.
Coupled with the fact that the federal government shoves the infrastructure burden onto states, counties and cities, where will the money come from?
As pointed out repeatedly in the report, don”™t look to the politicians who eschew taxation for fear of looking bad and thus unelectable for any financial help.
Richard M. Rosan, president of Urban Land Institute Worldwide, points out in the report that “the world is awash in investment capital looking for secure assets.” He adds, “Urban infrastructure has begun to emerge as a major investment class promising both income and capital returns.”
Privatization is gaining as a means of paying for all the fixes. If cost overruns occur, it”™s the investor or private company that gets the headache, rather than the taxpayer. The world”™s tallest bridge, the Millau Viaduct in France, was privately financed and built by the Eiffage Group. In exchange, the company will receive toll concessions for 75 years.
There are a number of public-private partnerships across the U.S. from the Las Vegas monorail to the Jamaica JFK Airtrain.
European governments have found that private operators want to “cherry pick” the prime moneymakers, such as high-traffic turnpikes and city-suburban connectors, according to the study.
With that in mind, with 135,000 vehicles crossing it each day, the Tappan Zee should be a number-one choice for privatization.
