Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff. Lauren Boglebaum Here. If you've been following
Speaker 1: the news in Washington lately, you're probably aware of the
Speaker 1: struggle in Congress to pass a bipartisan infrastructure proposal that
Speaker 1: would invest one point to twillion dollars over the next
Speaker 1: eight years to a vast range of projects, everything from
Speaker 1: replacing lead water pipes and repairing roads and bridges to
Speaker 1: building a national network of electric car charging stations and
Speaker 1: providing broadband internet access to Americans who don't have it yet.
Speaker 1: President Joe Biden, who's been on the road making speeches
Speaker 1: to promote the plan, calls it critical to making sure
Speaker 1: that this is quote an American century in which the
Speaker 1: US continues to lead the world instead of slipping behind
Speaker 1: other nations. Republican lawmakers and others have balked at the
Speaker 1: proposals price tag, So today let's talk about infrastructure. Infrastructure
Speaker 1: is a catch all term for the various big things
Speaker 1: that our civilization needs to function. Roads, bridges, tunnels, rail lines, dams, buildings,
Speaker 1: and systems that supply water and electricity, just to name
Speaker 1: a few. For the article, this episode is based on
Speaker 1: how Stuff Works spoke with Joseph Chauffeur, a professor of
Speaker 1: civil and environmental engineering and Associate dean of the Engineering
Speaker 1: School at Northwestern University. He also hosts the podcast to
Speaker 1: the Infrastructure Show. He explained, it's the built environment that
Speaker 1: supports our lives. If you didn't have infrastructure, you'd be
Speaker 1: sitting in an open field praying for rain. When the
Speaker 1: term infrastructure first came into vogue in the late eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: it meant the foundation or substructure of a building, road,
Speaker 1: or railroad line. It wasn't until after World War Two,
Speaker 1: when European countries began building a vast array of air fields, barracks, railways, depots,
Speaker 1: and other projects for use by NATO forces, that the
Speaker 1: term took on a broader meaning. According to the Global
Speaker 1: Competitiveness Report of twenty nineteen, a scorecard released by the
Speaker 1: World Economic Forum, the United States ranked thirteen out of
Speaker 1: a hundred forty one countries in overall infrastructure, but still
Speaker 1: scored perfect scores of a hundred in various measures including
Speaker 1: road connectivity, access to electricity, and the safety of its
Speaker 1: drinking water. Quality of roads got a five point five
Speaker 1: out of seven, but shouldn't we rank better. The same
Speaker 1: report ranked the United States as the second most globally
Speaker 1: competitive country in the world, behind only Singapore. So why
Speaker 1: were wet and overall infrastructure? People have been complaining about
Speaker 1: infrastructure being in a sorry state for decades. Back in
Speaker 1: the early nineteen eighties, the book America in Ruins warned
Speaker 1: that spending on public works projects was decreasing and that
Speaker 1: the nation's public facilities were wearing out faster than they
Speaker 1: were being replaced. One of its co authors, Pat Showed,
Speaker 1: warned Congress that one of every five US bridges was
Speaker 1: in need of either a major overhaul or total reconstruction,
Speaker 1: and that New York City was losing a hundred million
Speaker 1: gallons that's almost four hundred million liters of water daily
Speaker 1: because of aging water lines, and the report cards haven't
Speaker 1: improved much since then. In the Brookings Institution warned that
Speaker 1: China was investing four to five times as much as
Speaker 1: the US in maintaining and improving its infrastructure, and the
Speaker 1: countries like Canada, Australia, South Korea, and those in the
Speaker 1: European Union were spending significantly more as well. And in
Speaker 1: one the American Society of Civil Engineers or a s
Speaker 1: CE gave the U S a C minus for the
Speaker 1: state of infrastructure across the nation. It warned that of
Speaker 1: US roads and highways were in quote poor or mediocre condition,
Speaker 1: and that more than forty six thousand of the nation's
Speaker 1: bridges were in such lousy shape that it would take
Speaker 1: another fifty years just to complete all the currently needed repairs.
Speaker 1: The levees and stormwater systems that protect many communities from flooding,
Speaker 1: earned a D grade. Public transit systems earned a D minus,
Speaker 1: with nearly one in five transit vehicles and six percent
Speaker 1: of tracks, tunnels, and other facilities in poor condition. The
Speaker 1: nation's drinking water systems lose enough water every day to
Speaker 1: fill more than nine thousand swimming pools, and that's even
Speaker 1: though twelve thousand miles that's nine kilometers of water pipes
Speaker 1: were being replaced each year. The electrical grids were in
Speaker 1: somewhat better shape but still dangerously vulnerable to bad weather.
Speaker 1: Was six and thirty eight transmission outages over one recent
Speaker 1: four year period. How stuff Works also spoke via email
Speaker 1: with Anthony J. Lamana, an engineering professor and construction expert
Speaker 1: at Arizona State University. He said the A S c
Speaker 1: report card on infrastructure has been bad for years, so
Speaker 1: this is nothing new. We've seen it coming. There are
Speaker 1: multiple reasons why US infrastructure isn't in the shape that
Speaker 1: it should be. The first simply is roads, bridges, and
Speaker 1: other pieces of infrastructure are designed to have a useful lifespan,
Speaker 1: and inevitably their parts start to wear out. Take, for example,
Speaker 1: the bridges that are part of the nation's interstate highway system,
Speaker 1: which began construction during the Eisenhower administration more than six
Speaker 1: decades ago. Lamana said, we're nearing the end of life
Speaker 1: for some of the bridges. In fact, we're beyond it
Speaker 1: in some cases. Another problem is that much of the
Speaker 1: nation's infrastructure is controlled by the public sector, and its
Speaker 1: upkeep is supported by taxpayers. Much of the funding for
Speaker 1: maintaining highways and bridges, for example, comes from federal and
Speaker 1: state gasoline taxes, and increasing those taxes is politically risky
Speaker 1: for elected officials, even though today's fuel efficient cars get
Speaker 1: more aisles and put more wear and tear on the
Speaker 1: roads per gallon of gas purchased. Additionally, there's a powerful
Speaker 1: disincentive for politicians who face reelection to spend money on
Speaker 1: maintenance and renovations of existing infrastructure as opposed to putting
Speaker 1: that money into shiny new projects that will impress their constituents.
Speaker 1: And what compounds the dilemma is that while roads and
Speaker 1: bridges are in plain view, other parts of the nation's
Speaker 1: infrastructure are largely invisible, and that is until they break down.
Speaker 1: Chauffeur explained, I can't see the water and sewer lines,
Speaker 1: but I need them. That's one downside of the civil
Speaker 1: infrastructure system in the US. Things work so well and
Speaker 1: massive failures are so rare that people say, why should
Speaker 1: you tax me more? It works fine. The problem, of course,
Speaker 1: is that if spending for maintenance and renovations is deferred
Speaker 1: for too long, infrastructure assets start to show their age
Speaker 1: or else can't keep up with increases in demand. That's
Speaker 1: one reason that there's often a contrast in the condition
Speaker 1: of publicly controlled infrastructure and privately owned assets such as
Speaker 1: the freight rail network, where owners understand that their profits
Speaker 1: are dependent upon regular maintenance. Chauffer said, we're not spending enough,
Speaker 1: we're not spending strategically, and we're not spending in a
Speaker 1: focused kind of way. One solution advocated by the National
Speaker 1: League of Cities and others, is to put more infrastructure
Speaker 1: assets in the hands of public private partnerships a k
Speaker 1: a P three's. In these, a private sector company will
Speaker 1: take on the financing, construction, and long term maintenance of
Speaker 1: an infrastructure asset, with the costs spread out over the
Speaker 1: life of that asset and will be paid through user
Speaker 1: fees or taxes, while the government retains actual ownership of
Speaker 1: the asset. Lamana has another idea for improving infrastructure. He said,
Speaker 1: without getting to political, it would be awesome if we
Speaker 1: had more engineers the government. As one, there are just
Speaker 1: eight engineers in the U s House of Representatives and
Speaker 1: one in the Senate, compared to a hundred and forty
Speaker 1: four House members and fifty senators who have law degrees.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article how bad is
Speaker 1: America's Infrastructure Really? On how stuff works dot Com written
Speaker 1: by Patrick J. Kaiger. Brain Stuff is production by Heart
Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and
Speaker 1: it is produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.