The infrastructure in the U.S. is in a deep state of decay as these 21 facts will show!
Living in the New York metropolitan area I have the distinct pleasure of driving on two of the worst roads in the country, the Cross Bronx Expressway and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
I also have the honor of spending between $8 and $15 every time I go over or through a bridge or tunnel that's covered in rust and with roadbeds that seem as if they are only held together by metal plates.
My car is pummeled by potholes and decay and then partially submerged during storms due to poor sewers and drainage.
This is a story is repeated across the country where infrastructure needs are opposed by severe budgetary limitations faced by state, city and town governments.
21 U.S. infrastructure facts!
#1 The American Society of Civil Engineers has givenAmerica's crumbling infrastructure an overall grade of D.
#2 There are simply not enough roads in the UnitedStates today. Each year, traffic jams cost the commuters of America 4.2 billionhours and about 2.8 milliongallons of gasoline.
#3 It is being projected that Americans will spend anaverage of 160 hours stuckin traffic annually by the year 2035.
#4 Approximately one-third of allroads in the United States are in substandard condition.
#5 Close to a third ofall highway fatalities are due "to substandard road conditions, obsoleteroad designs, or roadside hazards."
#6 One out of every four bridgesin America either carries more traffic than originally intended or is in needof repair.
#7 Repairing all of the bridges in the United Statesthat need repair would take approximately 140 billiondollars.
#8 According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ourdecaying transportation system costs the U.S. economy about78 billiondollars annually in lost time and fuel.
#9 All over America, asphalt roads are being ground upand are being replaced with gravel roads because theyare cheaper to maintain. The state of South Dakota hastransformed over 100 miles of asphalt roads into gravel roads, and 38 out ofthe 83 counties in the state of Michigan have transformed at least some oftheir asphalt roads into gravel roads.
#10 There are 4,095 damsin the United States that are at risk of failure. That number has risenby more than 100percent since 1999.
#11 Of all the dam failures that have happened in theUnited States since 1874, a third of them havehappened during the past decade.
#12 Close to half ofall U.S. households do not have access to bus or rail transit.
#13 Our aging sewer systems spill more than a trillion gallons ofuntreated sewage every single year. The cost of cleaning up that sewageeach year is estimated to be greater than 50 billion dollars.
#14 It is estimated that rolling blackouts andinefficiencies in the U.S. electrical grid cost the U.S. economy approximately 80 billiondollars a year.
#15 It is being projected that by the year2020 every single major container port in the United Stateswill be handling at least double the volume that it was originally designed tohandle.
#16 All across the United States, conditions at many ofour state parks, recreation areas and historic sites are deplorable atbest. Some states have backlogs of repair projects that are now over abillion dollars long....
More than a dozen states estimate that their backlogs are atleast $100 million. Massachusetts and New York's are at least $1 billion.Hawaii officials called park conditions "deplorable" in a Decemberreport asking for $50 million per year for five years to tackle a $240 millionbacklog that covers parks, trails and harbors.
#17 Today, the U.S. spends about 2.4 percent of GDP oninfrastructure. Meanwhile, China spends about 9 percent of GDP oninfrastructure.
#18 In the United States today, approximately16 percent of our construction workers are unemployed.
#19 China has plans to build 55,000 miles of highways by the year2020. If all of those roads were put end to end, it would belonger than the total length of the entire U.S. interstate system.
#20 The World Economic Forum ranks U.S. infrastructure 23rd in the world,and we fall a little bit farther behind the rest of the developed world everysingle day.
#21 It has been projected that it would take 2.2 trillion dollars overthe next 5 years just to repair our existing infrastructure. That doesnot even include a single penny for badly needed new infrastructure.
Source
Save money on almost every household expense that you have! Click to learn more!
Get needed cash within hours!
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder