csua.org/u/bb7 -> story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=564&e=1&u=/nm/20050309/ts_nm/life_infrastructure_dc
Infrastructure Report Card (ASCE) The group's first report since 2001 looked at 15 categories of public inf rastructure, assigning each a letter grade. Overall, the nation's infras tructure received a D, down from a D+ four years ago. "If we treated our own homes like we treat our infrastructure, we'd all l ive in shacks," said ASCE president William Henry.
"I don't know of a single tax cut that's replaced a bridge. When that bri dge fails killing people, nobody's going to care whether those people we re Republicans or Democrats," he said. The report was compiled by 24 top engineers who analyzed publis hed material and surveyed 2,000 engineers in the field. The report said that since 2001, the conditions of the country's roads, d rinking water system, public transit, wastewater disposal, hazardous was te disposal, navigable waterways and energy system had worsened. The nation's drinking water system alone needed a public investment of $1 1 billion a year to replace facilities, comply with regulations and meet future needs. But federal funding reached less than 10 percent of this amount. As a result, aging wastewater systems were discharging billions of gallons of untreated sewage into surface waters each year, the report said. Poor roads cost US motorists $54 billion a year in repairs and operatin g costs while Americans spent 35 billion hours a year stuck in traffic jams. The country's power transmission system also needed to be modernized, the report said. While demand continued to rise, transmission capacity fail ed to keep pace and actually fell by 2 percent in 2001. But since 1998, the number of unsafe dams in the country rose by 33 perce nt to more than 3,500.
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