Our Crumbling
Infrastructure
By Cody Lyon
Associate Editor
On Jan. 28, the American Society of Civil Engineers released its latest report card on the nation’s infrastructure, assigning a cumulative grade of D. Saying that
under-funding threatens the nation’s economy, ASCE called for
a five-year, $2.2-trillion investment from all levels of government
and the private sector. That’s up from $1.6 trillion in a similar
report it did in 2005.
Reinforcing this imperative is a 2008 report prepared by the
Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young, in which GlobeSt.com
blogger Jonathan Miller wrote that no matter how hard they may
try, governments can’t escape a basic fact: Infrastructure is absolutely necessary and very expensive.
Even before taking office as the nation’s economy slid deeper
into crisis, President-elect Barack Obama began to enlist political
leaders in supporting a $850-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment economic stimulus plan intended to spur job growth and
markets. While earlier versions of the package would have directed
around one-third of that money to infrastructure projects, the final
tally in the $819-billion package passed by the House was considerably smaller. It allocates $30 billion for highway construction and
$12 billion for mass transit, about 5% of the total, with another
$119 billion for alternative energy investments.
As if to underscore the disparity between what’s needed and
what’s being spent, economist Harry S. Dent noted at a Jan. 23
luncheon that almost all of China’s $566-billion stimulus program
was targeted toward infrastructure, primarily transportation and
more specifically rail—a vastly different set of priorities than that
being considered in Washington, DC. Responding to a question
from Real Estate New York at the luncheon, which was sponsored
by CoreNet Global’s New York chapter, Dent said if you are going
to attempt stimulating the economy with debt, at least have something to show for it.
