Make America’s Infrastructure Great Again

by Brook Soltvedt

Turn on the tap. We expect clean water to come out. Run the washing machine, and that dirty water should drain away. Heavy rain or snowmelt—better not end up in my basement—why isn’t the city taking care of that stormwater?!

Be they backaches from driving broken streets, a snapped collar bone caused by a pothole-precipitated bike crash, or your car’s latest wheel alignment gone bad, failing infrastructure holds us back. Yet taxpayers often pressure government officials to keep taxes low, while still expecting our municipal services to improve. The result is often deferred maintenance to crucial infrastructure.

For 20 years, our state gasoline tax was indexed to inflation. Those dollars paid for highway maintenance. That went by the wayside in 2006 and our highways now suffer from neglect. Car-free inner-city residents rely upon safe sidewalks, the bus and bike commuter routes. But non-users don’t want to pay for these despite the fact that these transit options keep cars off the roads. Likewise, businesses often balk at added costs for required infrastructure, like bike parking, electric car charging stations, and rain gardens for flood control in new construction.  

Our industries need reliable roads, ports, and air cargo systems to function. Our cities thrive because of transit systems, infrastructure that brings in clean water and flushes wastewater for processing, and garbage removal. Our suburbs and rural areas have different, but significant challenges in transportation, access to electricity, broadband internet, and clean water. And everywhere there seems to be a shortage of affordable housing. Who has forgotten the horrors of the collapse of the Minneapolis interstate bridge, the wildfires sparked by PG&E’s poorly maintained electrical wires, the poisoning of the people of Flint, Michigan, to name a few of the disasters resulting from neglected critical national infrastructure?

So, when are we actually going to have the will to DO something about it? Under the Obama Administration, the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was intended to help restore the economy after the 2008 recession and also improve our crumbling infrastructure. It provided a little over $100 billion for various infrastructure improvements.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issues a national report card every four years about the state of the nation’s infrastructure. The US overall earned a grade of D in 2009. Their report indicated a five-year funding gap in necessary investment of $1.2 trillion, showing just how far short of the mark the 2009 Act was in bringing our infrastructure up to snuff. Still, in 2017 the overall ASCE rating climbed from D+ to D.

In 2016, Donald Trump campaigned on a $1 trillion infrastructure program, much of it targeted at the Midwest rustbelt. That promise was downgraded to a $550 billion plan that never happened. Infrastructure spending as a percent of the economy stagnated in most areas and actually fell in areas like water. The 2021 ASCE report card and summary show our overall rating did climb from D to C-, though that was due more to local spending than federal investments. But from 2009 to 2021 the gap between need and funding has more than doubled to $2.6 trillion.

Now the Biden Administration hopes to advance its Build Back Better agenda. Led by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the massive transportation infrastructure project (larger than the $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan) aims to create jobs across the nation, while improving our economy, our health, our national security, and our quality of life. No one knows how large the final package will be, but there is hope for bipartisan support for substantial infrastructure spending.

So, where does Wisconsin stand relative to the rest of the nation? In most sectors, Wisconsin’s 2020 infrastructure grades exceed 2021 national grades. But our GPA of C is nothing to brag about. In the critical areas of drinking water, wastewater, roads, transit, and inland waterways, Wisconsin has below-average grades (highlighted in pink below).

Summary of ASCE Infrastructure Grades

Lawmakers and citizens need to understand how failing infrastructure holds us back and how investments are vital to our health and safety, and to a thriving economy. On WUWM’s Lake Effect program last week, ASCE member Darren Olson told host Audrey Nowakowski, “Every $1 that we spend on infrastructure brings back $2.20 in economic benefit, so there’s really no better way to get ourselves out of this recession other than investment through infrastructure.”

Please join us on Thursday, March 18, from 3–5 p.m., for a program on the state of Wisconsin’s infrastructure. Carl Sutter, P.E., Director, American Society of Civil Engineers – Wisconsin Section, will give an overview presentation on the 2020 Wisconsin Infrastructure Report Card; and William Holahan, Emeritus Professor of Economics, UW-Milwaukee, will defend why now is the right time to make infrastructure investments. The recorded presentations will be followed by live Q & A with Sutter and Holahan and experts from southwest Wisconsin.

Please, register here for a Zoom link to participate.

Over the summer, we’ll have separate discussions about the state of various sectors of Wisconsin’s infrastructure. Please click here or on the image of the flyer to the right, and save the dates! Registration information will be available closer to the time of the presentations.

Splash photo of a reflection in a pothole by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash.

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