11 Deeply Alarming Facts About America’s Crumbling Infrastructure

Traffic Jam Los Angeles - Photo by PrayitnoNo matter what your particular political perspective is, if there is one thing that virtually everyone in the United States can agree upon it is the fact that America’s infrastructure is crumbling.  Previous generations of Americans conquered an entire continent and erected the greatest system of infrastructure that the world had ever seen, but now thousands upon thousands of those extremely impressive infrastructure projects are decades old and in desperate need of repair or upgrading.  The near catastrophic failure of the Oroville Dam is a perfect example of what I am talking about.  We should be constructing the next generation of infrastructure projects for our children and our grandchildren, but instead we are in such sorry shape that we can’t even keep up with the maintenance and upkeep on the great infrastructure projects that have been handed down to us.

Once upon a time nobody on the entire planet could even come close to matching our infrastructure, but now our crumbling infrastructure has become a joke to much of the rest of the industrialized world.  Sadly, this is just another symptom of our long-term economic collapse.  We simply are not able to put as much of our money toward infrastructure as previous generations of Americans did, and as a result we have a giant mess on our hands.  The following are 11 deeply alarming facts about America’s crumbling infrastructure…

#1 According to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, nearly 56,000 bridges in the United States are currently “structurally deficient”.  What makes that number even more chilling is the fact that vehicles cross those bridges a total of 185 million times a day.

#2 More than one out of every four bridges in the United States is more than 50 years old and “have never had major reconstruction work”.

#3 America does not have a single airport that is considered to be in the top 25 in the world.

#4 The average age of America’s dams is now 52 years.

#5 Not too long ago, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the condition of America’s dams a “D” grade.

#6 Overall, the American Society of Civil Engineers said that the condition of America’s infrastructure as a whole only gets a “D+” grade.

#7 Congestion on our highways costs Americans approximately 101 billion dollars a year in wasted fuel and time.

#8 According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, over two-thirds of our roads are “in dire need of repair or upgrades”.

#9 In order to completely fix all of our roads and bridges, it would take approximately 808 billion dollars.

#10 Federal spending on infrastructure has decreased by 9 percent over the past decade.

#11 According to Bloomberg, it is being projected “that by 2025, shortfalls in infrastructure investment will subtract as much as $3.9 trillion from U.S. gross domestic product.”

The quality of our infrastructure affects all of our lives every single day.  For instance, we all simply take it for granted that safe, clean drinking water is going to come out of our taps, but recent events have shown that is not necessarily always going to be the case.

Just ask the residents of Flint, Michigan.

Water pipes, sewer systems and water treatment facilities all over the nation are aging and are in desperate need of repair.  Of course the exact same thing could be said about our power grid.  It was never intended to handle so many people, and on the hottest days of the summer the strain on the grid is very evident.

And of course the power grid is exceedingly vulnerable to an electromagnetic pulse event, and this is something that I covered in my book on getting prepared.  It has been projected that it would only cost a couple billion dollars to harden the grid against an EMP event, but our politicians refuse to spend the money.

Meanwhile, President Trump is completely correct when he says that our airports look like something that you would see in a third world country.  Most of our airports are at least several decades old, and they are definitely showing their age.

But things are even worse when you look at other systems of mass transit around the country.  While other nations such as Japan and China are investing huge amounts of money into high speed rail, we are doing next to nothing even though what we currently have is absolutely pathetic.

I could go on and talk about our ports, schools, waterways, parks, etc. but I think that you get the point.

President Trump’s instincts are right on the money when he says that he wants to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure.  Without a doubt, we desperately need it.

The problem is that we are flat broke.

We are 20 trillion dollars in debt, and we are adding more than a trillion dollars to that total every year.

So where are we going to get the money?

It is easy for liberals to say that we should raise taxes, but how much more are you going to squeeze out of U.S. consumers?  Two-thirds of the country is living paycheck to paycheck, and we just learned that U.S. household debt has risen to a grand total of 12.58 trillion dollars.

Once upon a time, America was the wealthiest nation on the entire planet and we could afford to construct bold, new infrastructure projects from sea to shining sea.

But today we have the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world and we can’t even afford to repair what we already have.

When I speak of our long-term economic collapse, this is precisely the sort of thing that I am talking about.  We have clearly been in decline for a very long time, and anyone that would suggest otherwise is simply not being honest with you.

 

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Scruffy

If you give money to every Tom, Dick, and Harry, you will soon be in the shape America is in: In debt up to our eyeballs. Cut welfare and cut the spending outside of the US. Quit taking in refugees and putting them all on welfare. Stop illegals coming in and taking jobs. Stop H1B Visas and let Americans have those jobs. Wait…that is what Trump is doing.

Unreconstructed
Unreconstructed

“Stop illegals coming in and taking jobs.”

In my town every where you look is help wanted signs. The parking lot at the Social Security office is always full though. They can make more money by making babies and with bad backs plus get free “Obummer phones.”

PatrioTEA
PatrioTEA

And the Lib-Progs-MSM won’t hear of it or permit it.

aguila2011
aguila2011

No one seems to use the word “Pork” any longer. Guess it must be sensitivities to the middle eastern crowd coming to our land. But the amount of waste that permeates government at all levels makes this the fault of the voter, bottom line. Take Oroville. With several years of drought and an unproven spillway, you mean to tell me no one “tested” or inspected this spillway and the first time it is used in a real life situation, it fails!? What were responsible people doing for all those years of drought? And with the land being so dry, the prospect of high amount of run-off had to be expected.

Yet no one questions what happened to the trillion dollars per year that were printed up under the auspices of “goosing” the economy under Obama’s terms. No one complained about all the monies given to other countries in the name of American goodwill. No one does anything about the growing entitlements to “dindu nuffins” who sit at home when they should be given a shovel and put to work.

Probably half the country’s debt is money that is lost, squandered, or stolen through crony business-politics, bad negotiating by governments at all levels, and liberal policies that ease the conscience of some at the expense of those footing the bill. Too much waste with nothing in return. That is the real crime. The fact that the infrastructure has failed is a simple matter of no one minding the ship. Everyone is off playing politics and working to get re-elected because the greatest generation did built something to last and what they built has served us well. But “we” have dropped the ball and we have let the tail wag the dog. I am glad Pres. Trump sees the heart of the problem and is willing to take the slings and arrows in order to fix things. If I could I would stand in front of him and defend him from those by taking the body blows myself. God bless him. People say we can’t come up with the money for infrastructure or any of the things that are needed. I say the money is there. It is more a matter of people not wanting to let go of “their” gravy train and sometimes it takes some tough love to overcome these kinds of problems, even though they might not be appreciated.

Anon
Anon

“#9 In order to completely fix all of our roads and bridges, it would take approximately 808 billion dollars.”

#11 According to Bloomberg, it is being projected “that by 2025, shortfalls in infrastructure investment will subtract as much as $3.9 trillion from U.S. gross domestic product.”

Keep the figures from the two quotes above in your head while I say a couple of words;

In 2007 – 08, “we” bailed out the bankers of this nation to the tune of 750 Billion dollars. That is just 58 Billion dollars short of the money required to fix ALL of our roads and bridges. The main beneficiaries of those bailouts were GS, Citi, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America etc. Why? Because WE the people refuse to wake the hell up and stop listening to the corrupt assholes in Washington. We spoke once, and TARP was voted against, then it was voted on again. We the people at that point had an election just a few months later, and WE the people REFUSED to vote ALL of them out. Why?

The Federal Reserve has printed around 9 Trillion dollars altogether in bailouts to foreign banks and other “programs” to keep the “economy” (read banksters) afloat. Some foreign banks like HSBC. That is almost 3 times the shortfall projected above by 2025. What have “we the people” received for this? A clean doubling of inflation over the past 8 years. Maybe more.

My point is, that until we wake the hell up to the fact that all of the crooks in Washington don’t work for us, republican or democrat, we will continue down this road. We can continue reading articles like this, and saying to ourselves “gee, that is not good”, but as long as the sheeple of this nation don’t get their collective heads out of their asses, it will continue. President Trump being elected is a good start, however this attitude by local folks that somehow their local officials: senators, congressmen / women etc. are different is a joke. See the latest reelection of John McCain, Nancy Pelosi, that Asshat from Nevada that I can’t remember right now. It goes on and on. Very frustrating, and hopefully the tide is turning, because if not, we are going to go the way of the Romans….

kokoda the deplorable
kokoda the deplorable

“The near catastrophic failure of the Oroville Dam …
“we can’t even keep up with the maintenance and upkeep”

Sorry, but this is BS.
At least 1/2 the problem is politicians. The Oroville Dam is a great example. Anyone that has been keeping informed on the activity is aware of the political neglect.

The entire political process almost guarantees that our country will fail – that dam is but a small example.

PatrioTEA
PatrioTEA

Now, you just have to remember that the Oroville Dam problem occurred, according to the Lib-Progs-MSM, during the time of a so-called Longest drought in history due to Global Warming, and that it would never rain again. So, that group felt that fixing the dam was not necessary. But Trump (of Bush) will be blamed.

CCRider
CCRider

Our failing infrastructure is comparable to the failing teeth of a heroin addict. Its the direct result of a failed philosophy. You are correct that our assets are in serious decomposition and I believe there is no end in sight. Trump’s plans for a massive spending program, needed though it is, is doomed to die in stillbirth. There’s no way congress will fund this-including the Paul Ryan republicans. Just wait until the debt ceiling debate (farce that it is) starts in the next month. More debt means less options. Get use to the Oroville dams (damns?) There’s no way to avoid the debt induced economic winter coming our way.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

Put another way, despite the fact that the average age of our bridges is 52 years, no one has died from a bridge collapse in the last six years. There’s a bike path in Minneapolis that runs in an old train line. It goes under a series (a couple dozen, I suppose) of bridges every two city blocks. These concrete and stone bridges were built in 1914-1916. They’re fine. Europe has many bridges that are centuries old. So none of our airports are “in the top 25” whatever that means. What are the criteria for “top 25”? Interactive toilets? Light rail from the city? If you have a ’69 Camaro in top shape should you be bummed that it’s not a 2003 Buick Century with Onstar? I have no doubt that we need infrastructure renovation, but those fearmongering stats come from the people who would get paid to rebuild things. If it’s broke, fix it, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. There’s no way we could re-build our infrastructure for $800 billion. The 2009 stimulus was $860 bil, 1/3 of it was tax cuts and half of the rest was infrastructure. What did we get? Practically nothing. Most highway projects should be adding lanes, but the greenies won’t allow that because theyWANT roads to suck so we’ll all be forced to use choo-choos – a 19th century technology.

EL Coyote
EL Coyote

Iska, do you recall those bridge collapses during the Bush administration that were always unexplained and then dropped by the MSM? They went into hyper-drive to examine the state of all bridges. No hint of terrorist activity. Stuff just decided to fall apart at the same time.

If Trumpy wants to block all Muslim traffic into the US, perhaps he is not telling us something, which is what the MSM has gotten good at, not telling us shit.

Fiatman60
Fiatman60

All the comments above- right on the money! My mom and dad used to say they thought it was crazy for Americans to build the interstates. But look at what we all got for it. Yes – transportation infrastructure is the key to a successful society. That’s what Expo 86 was all about. As we gradually move away from the independent automobile, we will need those transportation corridors for more future productive use. Better keep them up to date for future generations!

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

Listen pal, Americans aren’t moving away from the independent automobile. Maybe in San Fran where the average family is 1.05 people and all they need to do is get to the BLM protest. People want to get their kid to their soccer game or pick up their dog from the vet. And maybe do both on one outing. They don’t want to spend two hours taking a bus to get on the light rail to get some cat litter and get home by midnight. FUCK THAT.

Stucky

Ahhh, Michael Snyder and bullshit. Mm-mm-good!

1. When Snyder was one he learned his first word …. “Shit!”
2. When Snyder was two he learned his first sentence …. “Shit, we’re fucked!”
3. When Snyder was three his mother stopped nursing … and he was sure he’d starve to death
4. When Snyder was four he discovered his penis … and spent the rest of the year worrying it was too small
5. When Snyder was five he learned the alphabet …. And was obsessed wondering if that was enough letters to write a book
6. When Snyder was six he read “see Dick run” …. And was sure Dick was running because the end of the world was near
7. When Snyder was seven he learned to write …. And he wrote his first essay, “Seven reasons my dumbass teacher doesn’t know shit.”
8. When Snyder was eight he learned to masturbate.
9. When Snyder was nine he accepted Jeebus into his heart …. and never masturbated again, which led to chronic DSB (Deadly Semen Buildup), which leads to the brain’s sex neurons completely overwhelming thinking neurons ….

…… which explains why Snyder is Full Of SHIT (the first word he ever learned, hence, the cycle of life is complete)

catfish
catfish

Well done Stucky – Synder is full of shit. In fact one of the biggest bullshitters there is.
Why the fuck is he allowed to peddle his bullshit on the Burning Platform?
Amongts all other failed predictions, he was ranting on about a big catastrophic event of 23rd September 2015.
Well stone the fuckin’ crows I must have been so high I slept right through that one.

javelin
javelin

Dozens of failed predictions of catastrophe–not just “maybes” but flat out predicting. If it is not the collapse of Deutsche Bank, the blood moons, Ebola crossing the Atlantic into the US, then it’s the mayan calendar, end of QE, the .25% rise in interest rates or some other trigger that is sure to be the event that causes the “big collapse.”

If you need any further proof, and EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS, Snyder is in bed with Jim Bakker and his faux-Christian bilking of the elderly and desperate. He is a regular speaker on Jim Bakker’s Youtube channel, at Bakker’s church shilling for “survival biscuits and freeze dried survival foods” -( and you get a free water bottle with every $100 spent!!) and his book “The Rapture Verdict” is a very weak attempt at discussing Eschatological issues ( but if there is no rapture then we all will need some survival biscuits in 5 gallon buckets!!)
I can’t believe that anyone would believe a word Bakker says after all of his corruption, legal issues, hookers, Jessica Hahn, jail time and Tammy Faye history–but it appears as if e found a new niche…and he has taught Snyder well on how to profit from peddling doom porn and then survival supplies.

catfish
catfish

Yeah so the question remains – why ist the balding ugly charlatan snake-oil salesman twat allowed to peddle his bullshit on the Burning Platform – it lowers the quality of the site – or does he pay the editors to put his shit out?

MrLiberty
MrLiberty

We most certainly had no trouble blowing up Iraq’s infrastructure (multiple times) along with Afghanistan’s infrastructure and then rebuilding both (poorly and overcost). Both of these worthless wars were nothing more than wealth transfer schemes that put trillions into the pockets of the ruling elite that control our government (both major parties). We continue to waste $1Trillion a year on the overseas empire and all of its associated cost burdens while the truth of our crumbling nation stares us right in the face. Even infrastructure projects are riddled with corruption, cost over-runs, etc. Government has failed us time and time again. NEITHER major party cares one bit about America, its future, or its success. They are more concerned with the exercise of power on behalf of the folks who pull their puppet strings and getting re-elected. And as was pointed out above, Americans continue to reward them by keeping both of these worthless parties in office. Until we all realize that government power itself is the plague on the human race we will have nothing but eternal misery to look forward to.

BB

Stucky ,I believe it’s time for you to masterbate .Will calm you down .
I drive out here on these damn roads and many are in horrible shape. The money just trucking companies pay in road / fuel taxes and permits would be enough to at least get major repairs started until you learn that fucking Congress took the money out of the highway fund and spent it the general fund just like Social Security.All the money is gone.Over years that has amounted to hundreds of billions of tax dollars gone with the wind.Those fucking thieves in Washington DC are the problem.Period.

Unreconstructed
Unreconstructed

“…billions of tax dollars gone with the wind….thieves in Washington DC…”
It’s not just federal, it’s also state and local. Years ago in my area the issue of allowing riverboat gambling was going to solve all our tax problems especially monies for education.
Reminds me of the story of George Wallace, when he was governor of Alabama and faced with the issue of raising taxes to fund education. One of his constituents asked the governor about raising the needed taxes for education because after all it was “for the little school children.” The governor replied that there will probably be a man in a three-piece suit on the six-o-clock news arguing to raise the taxes ’cause after all its for “the little school children.” There’s also some man who has been working out in the hot Alabama sun all day now watching the same news. He’s got a beer in one hand and a bologna sandwich in the other hand and he’s saying “Fuck the little school children.”
Well now we not only have riverboat casinos, but land based casinos and video poker in every truck stop across the state. Also some of the highest state and local taxes in the nation along with some of the poorest (failing schools.) And every election it;s still the same old bullshit. We need to pass a tax increase to provide a better education for “the little school children.”

Trapped in Portlandia
Trapped in Portlandia

As a public works engineer who deals with infrastructure daily as part of my job, we are faced with two major problems trying to preserve our infrastructure:

1. Politicians much prefer cutting ribbons for big new shit, rather than maintaining what is already built.
2. The higher up the government food chain that the money comes from, the less actually gets spent on building useful stuff. In other words it costs about $2 of federal money to build something a small city could build for $1. Plus using federal money extends the project timeframe by 3 times.

So how do you solve the problem? Here’s how:

1. Eliminate all federal infrastructure spending. If a state, city, or county want some infrastructure, they can build it and maintain it.
2. Eliminate the federal gas tax. If the feds don’t fund transportation, they shouldn’t be taking our money for it. States or cities can then increase their gas tax an equivalent amount and generate the same amount of cash that they can spend more effectively.
3. Government cannot build something new unless they put the money aside a the start to maintain the new stuff forever. That will make ribbon-cutting a little less exciting.

These ideas will not solve all the problems, but our money would be spent much more effectively with less opportunity for corruption.

Tom S.
Tom S.

Trapped has the problem nailed! I work in the engineering department of a small city and see it all the time. It’s not really inadequate funding so much as it is the combination of repairing & maintenance always – always – taking a back seat the shiny new projects that get politicians in the papers, and the ridiculous amount of drama, regulations, paperwork, and bullshit that come attached to the money from the Feds or the State for that matter.

Perfect example, we had too small sidewalk projects – nearly identical and within 1/2 mile of each other. The first was completed in 2 weeks for about 18 grand by our own city crews (and thus our own money) and a small subcontractor. The second was supposed to be 50% funded by the state. That meant that the plans went through 5 revisions, which took 6 months to get approved. Then, ibecuase it was state funds only “approved” contractors could bid. Bottom line is we got 4 bids, ranging from $46,000 to $84,000 to build a sub $20,000 project.

That example was just using state funds too. Used federal funds and it gets worse – much worse.

BamBam
BamBam

I actually am a bridge inspector, and while I don’t feel like wading into this mess, let me just say that calling a bridge structurally deficient is actually a very wide range of issues, ranging from critical, near disastrous conditions to smaller problems that make it not up to code, hence “deficient”. When you say 1 in 4 is structurally deficient, what your saying is that 1 in 4 need work to come up to code, which can mean anything from “shut down and replace” to “fix guard rail that people keep driving into. It’s a industry term that is being severely misrepresented here.

Suzanna
Suzanna

Good comments from everyone. Mr. Snyder is a great
person and quite the writer…problem is he is suffering from
excessive eschatology or reading Revelations literally.
My contribution to “we should…” is that the States keep their
tax $ entirely…and let the Feds get their own $.

catfish
catfish

Synder a great person ? No he aint- he be a big bullshitter. All his predictions are bullshit. Man I missed that big world collpase he predicted on 23rd September 2015.
But we know, since Eve, that women are so easily deceived by such charalatans – actually they love being deceived.

Unmonitored
Unmonitored

Obviously, different Un above.

EL Coyote
EL Coyote

Undoppled, I thought you sounded pretty smart there. Then I find it was somebody else.

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