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BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE. J. had an excellent analysis of the bridge collapse in Minnesota, and it got me to thinking about how we invest in infrastructures. In March of this year, the GAO released a report examining how we allocate funds for basic infrastructure. Things like road maintenance are expensive to fund and difficult to garner support for.
The efficiency of the nation's transportation infrastructure is threatened by increasing demand for transportation services, and revenue from traditional funding mechanisms may be unable to keep pace at current tax rates. Revenues to support the Highway Trust Fund--the major source of federal highway and transit funding--are eroding, with recent estimates forecasting a negative balance of more than $14 billion by the end of fiscal year 2012. ... The nation's infrastructure is under great strain; congestion across modes is significant and expected to worsen.Minneapolis, though I will defend it as a great city, is one that has poor public transportation. It relies on an antiquated busing system. The public was reluctant to invest in effective mass transit, so instead poured money into maintaining highways and freeways that reached across the ever-expanding metropolitan area. It is not unusual for people to drive more than an hour one way in traffic every day to and from work. It's been widely reported that the Minneapolis bridge, built in the '60s, was never intended to stand up to the volume of cars that drove over it every day.
