The Big Sell: Making People Care About Infrastructure Repair

[marmar]

The Big Sell: Making People Care About Infrastructure Repair

Mary Wisniewski On May 16, 2016
Source: McClatchy


May 15--In comic book movies, transportation infrastructure problems are easy to spot.

Bridges fall. Asphalt shatters. And unless Ironman funds the repairs out of his personal fortune, big public debt issues are ahead.

In real life, damage to roads and rails tends to be gradual, though ultimately just as ruinous to regional well-being.

With a new Illinois capital program delayed as the state goes 11 months without a budget, transit leaders have been sounding the alarm in both Washington, D.C., and Springfield about the dangers of waiting too long to invest in infrastructure. Business, labor and transit leaders will ramp up discussion nationwide Monday for the start of the thrillingly named Infrastructure Week.

It's a tough sell -- roads, buses and trains seem to work just fine until they don't, and politicians don't like to raise gas taxes or other user fees. Regional Transportation Authority Executive Director Leanne Redden admits that funding for bridges, signals and tunnels is not a sexy topic, but it's crucial to keep the system going the way it should. .............(more)

http://www.masstransitmag.com/news/12207965/the-big-sell-making-people-care-about-infrastructure-repair

[ViseGrip]

1. Must upsell? We have sold bridges to Spain and Dubai!

Do you think they care what condition they are in, while we drive over them? And THIS is what we do because we don't want to spend the money to repair them? But there is plenty for more war, to profit a few? ENOUGH!

BERNIE SANDERS ALL THE WAY!!!

[MrTriumph]

2. Infrastructure has its lobby, too.

Engineers, designers, construction firms all work together to get money put into infrastructure. They are a strong lobby.

[ReRe]

3. Don't see how that is possible...

... if infrastructure lobbyists are "strong", then where's all that money going? I don't see allot of infrastructure repair.

[ReRe]

4. This is the Republican way:

Buy it, and then let it fall to thew ground from lack of repair.

[Blanks]

5. People don't realize how expensive...

It is to maintain our infrastructure versus building new. As a civil engineer involved with design and construction of roads and bridges, I can tell you that the maintenance of traffic that it takes to repair an existing bridge is outrageous. The public gets very angry at even the least inconvenience so when a 4 lane bridge is replaced, all 4 lanes have to remain open the entire time of the construction. Very often that requires putting materials (asphalt typically) in place for temporary traffic and then taking it back up before the end of the project.

Compare that to building a bridge out across a pasture or a meadow and it's easy to see why the maintenance that we need falls short of the funding available.

If we are ever going to successfully keep up with our roadway infrastructure maintenance needs, we are going to need a program that encourages people to work from home and generally travel less.