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Improving America’s Basics
If we redirect resources to our country's priorities, America can be a nation where workers get to work on time without traffic-choked expressways, a country with world-class waterways and water infrastructure and a nation with schools that live up to the promise of future generations.
But the reality of today is:
- Americans spend 3.5 billion hours a year stuck in traffic on our highways due to years of neglect.
- At least 27 percent of our country's bridges are structurally deficient.
- Classrooms in our public schools are falling apart.
- Across America there are 3,500 unsafe dams.
The American Society of Civil Engineers gives our country an overall “D” grade when it comes to taking care of our basics. The ASCE estimates that $1.6 trillion is needed over the next five years to bring America back up to standards.
Years of neglect have left America’s basics crumbling.
| Basic Needs | Necessary Investments over the next 5 years |
|---|---|
| Maintaining and upgrading America's roads and bridges | $116 billion per year |
| Increasing America's passenger rail capacity and reducing delays in America's freight rail systems | $13 billion per year |
| Upgrading America's airport capacity and air traffic control systems | $15 billion per year |
| Maintaining and expanding America's transit systems | $21 billion per year |
| Upgrading America's drinking water facilities to comply with federal safe drinking water standards | $20 billion per year |
| Upgrading America's wastewater systems | $19.5 billion per year |
| Repairing America's high-hazard dams | $1 billion per year |
Resources
2007 Annual Urban Mobility Report. Texas Transportation Institute.
Report Card for America's Infrastructure. American Society of Civil Engineers.
Emergency Evacuation Report Card 2006. American Highway Users Alliance.
2007 Annual Report of The Second Strategic Highway Research Program. Transportation Research Board of the National Academies.
Estimating Maintenance Costs for Mixed High-Speed Passenger and Freight Corridors. U.S. Department of Transportation.
Working on the Railroad: Getting Passenger Services Up to Speed. Transportation Research Board of The National Academies.
The Transportation Challenge: Moving the U.S. Economy. U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The Transportation Challenge: Moving the U.S. Economy (Report Summary). U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
