I live in a little house that my grandfather built in the 1930s. I love its idiosyncrasies and farmhouse charm. It’s made with hand-milled wood and square nails. And it contains meaningful stories of my father’s childhood, as evinced by growth notches on the doorway and a bb hole in one of the windowpanes. I treasure these intimacies.
But it’s also dilapidated. The ceiling sags and the floor is patched in places. Between us, I’m convinced that within the walls tiny termites are holding hands. There’s no other explanation as to why the house is standing.
Similarly, across the US roads are crumbling and antiquated pipes leaking. Let’s be honest: infrastructure-wise, America’s glory years were decades ago. Chronic under-investment has led to dangerous conditions.
Whereas chipped paint and warped beams might be considered quirky-chic on my little house, America’s broken infrastructure is anything but charming. Infrastructure is critical to productivity. Our nation’s bridges are failing and its highways crumbling. Port capacities are inadequate, and railways slow and unsafe. In fact, the United States’ infrastructure is significantly below average for developed countries—so poor that, as many of you know, the American Society of Civil Engineers gives it a D+.
And, our economy depends on it. The Department of Transportation estimates that 8,500 trucks transport 50 million tons of goods on our nation’s highways each year. What happens when archaic pipes break? As our infrastructure continues into a state of disrepair, it threatens our economy. Theresults may be catastrophic.
In some cases, disastrous incidents have turned public focus to renovation. In July 2014 a 30-inch steel pipeline under Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA, ruptured. The event, caused by a break in a 1920s trunk line, drew attention to the fact that municipality’s water infrastructure was aging and in desperate need of repair. Since then, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has made reconstruction a priority and has allocated $2.2 billion to replace more than 250 miles of its distribution lines.
Large-scale investment is necessary. It will provide valuable return in the form of increased productivity, a cleaner environment, and better quality of life. But how do we pay for these improvements? As Lyn Corum writes in the article “Water Agencies Tackle Pipes Replacement and Financial Decisions”, some municipalities have raised rates or have bought municipal bonds to be repaid over time. Meanwhile, others have gotten creative, finding success through pairing grants, loans, and state revolving funds with resources from their general fund reserves.
Infrastructure funding will be directly impacted by the upcoming presidential election. The issue has gained significant momentum on the campaign trail. In addition to the $350 billion dollar measure (H.R. 22) that Congress authorized in December to support the Highway Trust Fund, Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton has proposed a “down payment” of $275 million, while fellow democrat Bernie Sanders has recommended that $1 trillion be put toward restorative efforts. Donald Trump has voiced support for infrastructure allocations, though other Republican candidates have pledged to reduce federal infrastructure investment.
It’s up to us, as voters and taxpayers, to ensure that municipalities have access to sufficient funding to assess, clean, and repair or replace water pipes and other infrastructure. Otherwise, future generations may inherit a productivity-choking, duct-taped-together system.
This era of renovation is an opportunity for America to transition from the age of industrial infrastructure to the age of smart infrastructure, in which a pipe is no longer just a pipe: It has sensors, flow meters, and memory. It integrates with systems that can detect problems, analyze data, and respond automatically. This restoration period offers us an opportunity to make the bones of our civilization responsive and dynamic.
I’m thrilled to share innovations such as these within our pages . . . technological advances that have the potential to increase our efficiency and safety, as well as our enjoyment of the spaces we inhabit. As for my own little home restoration project, I hope that the termites can hold tight a bit longer.
