Jonathan D. Miller

US needs infrastructure plan

Real estate & infrastructure analyst, May 07, 09.

Tagged with transportation, infrastructure

The good news is that states and cities have begun fixing bridges, paving roads, repairing subway tracks, and upgrading sewage treatment plants.

And it’s clear–throwing stimulus money at ad hoc projects, generating jobs in a serious recession, can add value, especially when the funds are targeted at refurbishing aging systems which otherwise might break down or even collapse.

But let’s not pretend this short-term, ad hoc spending remotely addresses America’s infrastructure needs. The United States desperately requires a forward-looking plan for 21st century infrastructure that can support and sustain renewed economic growth and accommodate 100 million more Americans over the next 40 years.

Our last game-changing national infrastructure initiative dates back more than five decades ago to President Eisenhower’s interstate highway system–nearly 50,000 miles of sleek freeways, which spurred dramatic suburban growth and enabled long distance car and truck travel.

The problem is that once most interstates were completed in the late 1970s, we essentially stopped paying attention to infrastructure planning. Today the road-based model is an anachronism–unsustainable in a new century.

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So where’s the strategy? Funding myriad local transportation projects can’t pass competitive muster when Europe builds transcontinental transportation networks to link commercial centers and China spends trillions of dollars on integrated road, rail, transit and airport systems. Even Canada has initiated a concerted, joint national-provincial program to rebuild transport infrastructure around key national hubs and gateways.

Full story: New Century Infrastructure: Where’s the Plan?
Source: Citiwire.net, April 26, 2009

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