This Chart Shows How Bad America's Bridge Really Are

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-on-american-infrastructure-2015-1


One-quarter of US bridges need to be replaced.

America's infrastructure is super old.
In a note to clients over the weekend, Goldman Sachs economist Alec Phillips takes a look at the state of American infrastructure and the prospects for increasing investment to improve it, and what he finds isn't pretty.

"The quality of infrastructure is generally regarded as a weak point for the US," Phillips writes. "Aging airports, rusting bridges, and crumbling roads generate complaints from visitors and residents alike."

Bridges in particular pose a problem around the country. Phillips writes that of the roughly 600,000 bridges in the US, 25% are classified by the Department of Transportation as "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete."

Phillips writes that the "theoretical design life of a bridge is about 50 years," which makes this a particularly damning chart.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-on-american-infrastructure-2015-1#ixzz3PGp8JI4h

[n2doc]

1. That big block of interstate bridges was built a long time ago

Within the next 10 years we will start seeing real problems, even with the great engineering of the time.

[MisterP]

2. that's a big part of the "70s malaise"--simply wear and tear on the unprecedented mass of concrete

and steel from the 40s-60s: the boom turned out not to be eternal, so money to patch up the concrete was deferred; by the 80s Googie was being torn down for white boxes and beige boxes and terrazzo boxes

our stagnating roads, rail, and bridges, choked airports, and rotting heavy-rocket gantries are all different facets of the same neglect of infrastructure that started with the 70s downturn and was locked-in with the 80s handover of the country to the few