Crumbling Infrastructure In The United States

Water scarcity is increasing worldwide and dramatically affecting first world nations such as Spain, Australia, and the United States. All nations are now starting to recognize that the world's water is a finite resource, and that resource is being drastically altered in both availability and quality by development, climate change and population growth. In the United States, the Colorado River is experiencing rapid declines in volume. Recent studies and data suggest that the changes in frequency, intensity, and timing of the availability of water will have substantial impact on the way we live our lives in the 21st century and beyond. As Letmathe Brakeck said, “I am confident that, under present

Metro Atlanta is on a collision course with reality – and the shock of this collision will have profound political and economic implications for future growth throughout the Southeast. The core problem is that Atlanta’s runaway growth will soon outstrip the available water supply (Corps, 1998). And if Atlanta continues to increase its water consumption until the maximum limits are reached, the effects on downstream users will become catastrophic, both economically and environmentally.

Proposition 35 simply gives state and local government the flexibility to use private sector engineers and architects to complete long overdue highway, rail transit and other projects sooner, safely, and at $2.5 billion savings to taxpayers. Supporters of Proposition 35 highlight a few important points, including thousands of overdue highway and rail transit projects that must be completed to alleviate traffic and prepare us for the next quake. In order to complete these thousands of projects both Caltrans and private sector engineers and architects are needed to complete those projects. However, Caltrans bureaucrats stand in the way of accomplishing this by severely restricting government's ability to contract with the private sector. Proposition 35 is the answer to these problems. Proposition 35 is

For this paper water structures and infrastructures were selected as focus points because the longer we wait to fix issues with them, the more expensive it will get, in other words, we are in a race against time. Studying the past it is easy to see how water availability made population explode in an area such as Southern California, where savvy marketing and great politics made it happen. Particularly, for Los Angeles and for the purposes of public narrative, Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert does a great job at understanding and identifying the politics and key figures in getting water to Los Angeles. Great hydrologic structures were created using both manpower and water politics. It is important to state that there are connections between water, politics, environment, and geography when analyzing what the biggest problems involving water structures and infrastructures (Reisner.) We must think of water as both a socio-political issue and a natural resource, whose fate is molded by the understanding of its connectivity to itself, man-made structures, geography, environment, and society. The classes taken in this program have taught us ideals that in order to become a great water resource manager, one must master the political and scientific knowledge to make decisions that are prosperous for society and the environment. Furthermore, one must know the United States’ hydrological history in order to gain manipulation upon the system that makes it both thrive and deteriorate.

While the Federal-Aid Highway act of 1956 created the U.S. Interstate system and brought a nation together, the Federal-Aid Highway act of 1973 would later create division in federal and state political parties over future funding concerns. In the short run, President Nixon considered this act as a positive step for transportation and the economy. However, in the long run, this act led to the eroding of HTF’s, leaving both state and federal government debating over how to proceed in funding a transportation infrastructure that is at present time slowly crumbling. Political differences between federal and state agencies have brought the modernization process of the transportation infrastructure to a snail’s pace. In addition, the lengthy

The state of Texas is well known for its fast grown as a southern state, due to the idea of better opportunities of employment and for having a cheap lifestyle such as housing and food. But not everything is so good, the transportation in Texas is not very efficient. Even when the state has more than 501 highways, they seem to not be on the best conditions. The infrastructures' bad shapes not only affects the state, in general, but it also affects the residents.

While it was not a major issue in the just concluded campaigns, the future of Texas ' infrastructure did receive attention in the two major Texas political parties (Republican and Democratic). However, the political parties reveal differing positions and philosophies on ways of tackling the issue. To be specific, the Democrats believe that infrastructure is important to the future economic prosperity (LePatner, 2010). Further, the party argues that broadband networks, schools, water systems, and energy are some of the infrastructures that are readily ripe for investment. As such, the party hopes that investments in such fields may help address other related issues such as unemployment too. Sadly, the Democratic Party does not mention how additional funding would be injected in infrastructure. Instead, the members weigh in on some tools that may be vital in helping Texas to fund infrastructure projects (Schiller, Bruun, & Kenworthy, 2010). The party promises to continue encouraging investments in infrastructure by state and local governments by creating a lasting edition of the Build America Bonds program. Conversely, the Republicans appear unfavorably on using government funds for sidewalks,

According Edmonton’s 2012 budget report, almost all municipalities across Canada face a significant infrastructure deficit. Neighborhood renewal occurred periodically with funding from other orders of government, yet it failed to address the full life-cycle requirements of preventative maintenance, rehabilitation, and reconstruction. Over time, the condition of roads, sidewalks and sewers deteriorated, resulting in more frequent collapsed sewers, increased sidewalk hazards, and dramatically increased maintenance like pothole repairs. The Office of Infrastructure and Funding Strategy highlighted the need for ongoing funding for neighborhood infrastructure to overcome an anticipated $2.2 billion funding gap in neighborhood roads and related infrastructure.

Comparing the financial cost of the interstate with the cost of having to reallocate funding or stopping programs in an effort to decrease traffic congestion will create a greater economic downturn if not done in moderation as well as a decrease in confidence in lawmakers. The lawmakers will feel the decrease in confidence by citizens during elections. Unless the local government can generate and use other sources of revenue to continue highway improvement, the decision to remove the city’s funding is not practical.

“Infrastructure is the four-syllable jawbreaker that governments use to describe the concrete, stone, steel, wires and wood that Americans rely on every day but barely notice until something goes awry (Kelderman).” Due to the state of the economy many lawmakers put the money need to keep infrastructure properly taken care of into things like defense. The federal Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which makes low interest loans to clean up or protect water supplies, has shrunk from more than $3 billion in 1990 to roughly $1 billion in 2007 (Kelderman). The report also suggests that there is an $11 billion dollar shortfall annually needed to bring facilities up to current federal water regulations. As stated in the article “ The State of the Union-Crumbling’, the nation is spending less than 40 percent of the $225 billion needed annually for the next 50 years to maintain the current system of roads, rails and bridges and build enough transportation capacity for a growing population.

     Everything is bigger in Texas. That’s what a lot of Texans what Americans and people around the world to know – you don’t mess with Texas. In the 1950’s, when President Eisenhower created the first Interstate plan for the country and implemented new roads in almost every single state, it was the largest engineering feat in the modern world. Now, almost half a century later, Governor Rick Perry is set to break that record, with the costliest, largest, and most incredible-sized proportion Texas Trans-Corridor, dubbed the “Texas Superhighway,” a 4000 mile, $175 billion dollar project that won’t be completely functional for another fifty years (Perry). This project certainly

Throughout the course of history there have been many advances in the world of infrastructure, mostly occurring in the 1800’s and the 1900’s. Infrastructure is defined as the basic physical and organizational structure needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function. This definition shows how important infrastructure is to people’s lives today. It affects how people live, travel, and communicate with one another. Three men who made huge contributions in the world of infrastructure were Robert Moses, Richard Ravitch and Othmar Hermann Ammann. All three of these men were involved in designing numerous landmarks, highways, bridges, tunnels, and other forms of infrastructure that today we take for granted. Although all of these men were involved in infrastructure in the New York metropolitan area, their contributions, personalities, and the public’s opinion of them were all different.

United States’ national infrastructure are resources that are vital to keep commerce operating. Technology have allowed the governments and the private sector to share vital information with them. The nation well-being depend on each of the critical infrastructures, the big question is on how to maintain all of our infrastructure sectors operative without any problem. There a big wave of threats to our nation and if one of this threads go through, it can created a multidimensional problem to the infrastructure system of the country. The main concerns that exist in protecting the U.S. against any attacks to any U.S. infrastructure and in the same time on how to have a system that work well with other agencies. For example; is important to

Our transportation system, quite arguably, may embody our most vital system, as Infrastructure and Democracy clarifies, “access is the hallmark of a great infrastructure” (Jones, Reinecke). By great contrast, our roads remain a current issue. 42 percent of America’s urban highways remain congested, costing the United States 101 billion dollars in wasted time and fuel each year. Also, the32 percent of roads, in poor or mediocre condition, cost the average traveler $324 per year (American Infrastructure Report Card). Unfortunately, updating the highway systems seems longer than it may seem, as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that from proposal to completion most highways will need nine to nineteen years to fix (Leduc, Wilson 129). In addition to the roads, our bridges are failing just as much. One of every nine bridges within the United States is categorized as structurally deficient. The average bridge 42 years old, and in order to eliminate the bridge renovation backlog, our country would need to invest twenty and a half billion dollars until 2028 (American Infrastructure Report Card). However, in 2013, the United States only invested 12.8 billion dollars in bridge reconstruction and repair (American Infrastructure Report Card). Also, our countries transit

With the overall objective in mind of providing public transportation to all Americans, we have to understand all of the different modes of transportation that need to be reconstructed and funded properly. America is a geographically diverse nation and all need to be taken into account to meet the growing demand of transportation over these differing regions. First off, we have to address states that must begin to rely on ferry transport across bodies of water. The ferry system needs adequate funding so that commuters can cross bodies of water such as the Puget Sound and Chesapeake Bay. Docks, landings, ferry boats, and employees will all need funding to ensure that this happens. Water public transportation is an unutilized territory and in this growing age we hope to help it strive. We plan to rebuild ferry landings