Sector Watch: Infrastructure repair

While the topic of infrastructure repair rarely makes the headlines, one of the major challenges facing the United States today is an outdated, decaying highway and bridge system. Federal and state agencies acknowledged this issue last year by increasing public works transportation spending 13%, with an additional 10% increase projected for 2007.    

The U.S. bridge infrastructure, in particular, is woefully antiquated and in need of repair. According to the Federal Highway Administration, nearly 30% of U.S. bridges are more than 50 years old and warrant frequent inspections for cracks and fatigue. Of the 600,000 bridges in the U.S. National Bridge Inventory (NBI) database, nearly 100,000 bridges are considered structurally deficient and in urgent need of attention. Maintenance and repair costs typically range around $2 .6 million across the life of a bridge, so the amount of spending required to repair 100,000 outdated bridges could easily approach $300 billion. The passage of time only exacerbates infrastructure repair challenges since costs climb as repairs become more frequent and as emergency situations arise.

The federal government oversees the maintenance of the U.S. bridge system. In 2005, Congress passed SAFETEA-LU (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: a Legacy for Users), a bill that authorizes spending of $286 billion for, among other things, bridge maintenance and repair between 2004 and 2009. The bill also requires more frequent inspection and maintenance of railroad bridges.

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