“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.
