www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20095291/from/RS.4
And it's not clear where the money is going to come from to fix it. Amid a steady rise in congestion and ongoing deterioration of decades-old roads and bridges, federal and state funding is failing to keep up with the need to maintain existing infrastructure and increase capacity. And the cash shortfall is only going to get worse, with the Federal Highway Trust Fund -- supported by a tax on gasoline -- projected to run dry in 2009. Part of the problem stems from the increase in traffic borne by a national highway system that is 50 years old in places. Today, that number has nearly quadrupled to 246 million, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. That added stress is taking a toll -- in both increased congestion and deterioration of roads and bridges. The list of projects in need of repair is extensive, according to TRIP, a national transportation research group: * 33 percent of the nation's major roads are in "poor or mediocre condition." Over 2,000 bridges on the interstate highway system are in need of an overhaul, according to Frank Moretti, TRIP's director of research. It's not clear just how many of those bridges are unsafe. According to the Federal Highway Administration, most bridges in the US Highway Bridge Inventory -- 83 percent -- are inspected every two years. About 12 percent, those in bad shape, are inspected annually, and 5 percent, those in very good shape, every four years. The Department of Transportation's inspector general last year criticized the Highway Administration's oversight of interstate bridges, saying that flawed calculations of weight limits could pose safety hazards. The Highway Administration agreed its oversight of state bridge inspections needed to be improved. Several governors on Wednesday ordered state transportation officials to inspect particular bridges or review their inspection procedures. It's also not clear just how much all this repair will cost, but some estimates put the price tag in the hundreds of billions of dollars. "If you do not take care of what is needed to maintain the condition and performance of an asset, you start creating a backlog of maintenance and capital improvement that needs to be met," said Janet Kavinoky, a transportation lobbyist at the US Chamber of Commerce. "We are amassing -- and have amassed -- a huge backlog when it comes to our infrastructure."
Recent bridge, highway collapses One reason for the backlog is that funding for highway repair and improvements hasn't kept up with rising construction and maintenance costs, which have far outstripped the overall inflation rate. The biggest reason: strong global demand for building materials like steel and concrete have pushed up prices of those raw materials. Higher oil prices have raised the cost of asphalt and the diesel fuel need to power road-building equipment. Meanwhile, funding for improvements and maintenance continues to fall short. When Congress last passed a major highway funding bill in 2005, the Federal Highway Administration estimated it needed $375 billion to fund repair and improvement projects, but the final bill authorized just $286 billion. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, said that the nation's transportation infrastructure has been underfunded for years and that the Bush administration has threatened to veto proposals to increase funding. "We want to get the bills done and want to get them increased at a sufficient amount," he said. So there is a lot of money that is being spent in other places that we have to recover and put into our highways. Because we face immediate danger in lots of places, and the public deserves better than that."
Congressional leaders say the number of bridges in need of repair is too high and the funding too low. "There is crumbling infrastructure all over the country," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel declined to address spending and accused the Democrats of using the Minneapolis bridge collapse for partisan purposes.
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