WEBVTT - How Bad Is America's Infrastructure? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:10.639 Hey brain Stuff. Lauren Boglebaum Here. If you've been following 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:13.920 the news in Washington lately, you're probably aware of the 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:17.919 struggle in Congress to pass a bipartisan infrastructure proposal that 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:21.239 would invest one point to twillion dollars over the next 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:25.000 eight years to a vast range of projects, everything from 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.680 replacing lead water pipes and repairing roads and bridges to 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.239 building a national network of electric car charging stations and 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:36.200 providing broadband internet access to Americans who don't have it yet. 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.520 President Joe Biden, who's been on the road making speeches 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:43.720 to promote the plan, calls it critical to making sure 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:47.360 that this is quote an American century in which the 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.600 US continues to lead the world instead of slipping behind 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.920 other nations. Republican lawmakers and others have balked at the 0:00:54.920 --> 0:01:01.120 proposals price tag, So today let's talk about infrastructure. Infrastructure 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:04.080 is a catch all term for the various big things 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:10.080 that our civilization needs to function. Roads, bridges, tunnels, rail lines, dams, buildings, 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:13.479 and systems that supply water and electricity, just to name 0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:17.040 a few. For the article, this episode is based on 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.360 how Stuff Works spoke with Joseph Chauffeur, a professor of 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.880 civil and environmental engineering and Associate dean of the Engineering 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:27.880 School at Northwestern University. He also hosts the podcast to 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:32.800 the Infrastructure Show. He explained, it's the built environment that 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.399 supports our lives. If you didn't have infrastructure, you'd be 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:41.160 sitting in an open field praying for rain. When the 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.760 term infrastructure first came into vogue in the late eighteen hundreds, 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:48.480 it meant the foundation or substructure of a building, road, 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:52.000 or railroad line. It wasn't until after World War Two, 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:57.560 when European countries began building a vast array of air fields, barracks, railways, depots, 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.600 and other projects for use by NATO forces, that the 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:04.640 term took on a broader meaning. According to the Global 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.880 Competitiveness Report of twenty nineteen, a scorecard released by the 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.720 World Economic Forum, the United States ranked thirteen out of 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:16.880 a hundred forty one countries in overall infrastructure, but still 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:20.639 scored perfect scores of a hundred in various measures including 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:24.720 road connectivity, access to electricity, and the safety of its 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:28.440 drinking water. Quality of roads got a five point five 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:33.519 out of seven, but shouldn't we rank better. The same 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.720 report ranked the United States as the second most globally 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:40.160 competitive country in the world, behind only Singapore. So why 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:45.360 were wet and overall infrastructure? People have been complaining about 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:49.200 infrastructure being in a sorry state for decades. Back in 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:53.280 the early nineteen eighties, the book America in Ruins warned 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:57.000 that spending on public works projects was decreasing and that 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.280 the nation's public facilities were wearing out faster than they 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:04.040 were being replaced. One of its co authors, Pat Showed, 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.520 warned Congress that one of every five US bridges was 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.000 in need of either a major overhaul or total reconstruction, 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:13.799 and that New York City was losing a hundred million 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.840 gallons that's almost four hundred million liters of water daily 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:21.000 because of aging water lines, and the report cards haven't 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:26.280 improved much since then. In the Brookings Institution warned that 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:28.919 China was investing four to five times as much as 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:32.280 the US in maintaining and improving its infrastructure, and the 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.640 countries like Canada, Australia, South Korea, and those in the 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:40.320 European Union were spending significantly more as well. And in 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:44.640 one the American Society of Civil Engineers or a s 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:47.840 CE gave the U S a C minus for the 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:52.400 state of infrastructure across the nation. It warned that of 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:56.560 US roads and highways were in quote poor or mediocre condition, 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.520 and that more than forty six thousand of the nation's 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.080 bridges were in such lousy shape that it would take 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:06.040 another fifty years just to complete all the currently needed repairs. 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.400 The levees and stormwater systems that protect many communities from flooding, 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:15.240 earned a D grade. Public transit systems earned a D minus, 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:18.440 with nearly one in five transit vehicles and six percent 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:22.479 of tracks, tunnels, and other facilities in poor condition. The 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.120 nation's drinking water systems lose enough water every day to 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.200 fill more than nine thousand swimming pools, and that's even 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:33.440 though twelve thousand miles that's nine kilometers of water pipes 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.440 were being replaced each year. The electrical grids were in 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:41.159 somewhat better shape but still dangerously vulnerable to bad weather. 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:45.160 Was six and thirty eight transmission outages over one recent 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:49.520 four year period. How stuff Works also spoke via email 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:53.360 with Anthony J. Lamana, an engineering professor and construction expert 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.840 at Arizona State University. He said the A S c 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:00.520 report card on infrastructure has been bad for years, so 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:05.440 this is nothing new. We've seen it coming. There are 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:08.760 multiple reasons why US infrastructure isn't in the shape that 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.680 it should be. The first simply is roads, bridges, and 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:16.720 other pieces of infrastructure are designed to have a useful lifespan, 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:21.680 and inevitably their parts start to wear out. Take, for example, 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:25.000 the bridges that are part of the nation's interstate highway system, 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:29.120 which began construction during the Eisenhower administration more than six 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.960 decades ago. Lamana said, we're nearing the end of life 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:35.640 for some of the bridges. In fact, we're beyond it 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:39.600 in some cases. Another problem is that much of the 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.520 nation's infrastructure is controlled by the public sector, and its 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:47.360 upkeep is supported by taxpayers. Much of the funding for 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:51.080 maintaining highways and bridges, for example, comes from federal and 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:55.760 state gasoline taxes, and increasing those taxes is politically risky 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:59.599 for elected officials, even though today's fuel efficient cars get 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:01.880 more aisles and put more wear and tear on the 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:06.640 roads per gallon of gas purchased. Additionally, there's a powerful 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.839 disincentive for politicians who face reelection to spend money on 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:15.159 maintenance and renovations of existing infrastructure as opposed to putting 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:19.040 that money into shiny new projects that will impress their constituents. 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:23.919 And what compounds the dilemma is that while roads and 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:26.920 bridges are in plain view, other parts of the nation's 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:31.320 infrastructure are largely invisible, and that is until they break down. 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:35.719 Chauffeur explained, I can't see the water and sewer lines, 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.400 but I need them. That's one downside of the civil 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.880 infrastructure system in the US. Things work so well and 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:45.159 massive failures are so rare that people say, why should 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:50.120 you tax me more? It works fine. The problem, of course, 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.640 is that if spending for maintenance and renovations is deferred 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:57.280 for too long, infrastructure assets start to show their age 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:00.800 or else can't keep up with increases in demand. That's 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.640 one reason that there's often a contrast in the condition 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:08.240 of publicly controlled infrastructure and privately owned assets such as 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:12.080 the freight rail network, where owners understand that their profits 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:17.880 are dependent upon regular maintenance. Chauffer said, we're not spending enough, 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:21.080 we're not spending strategically, and we're not spending in a 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:25.680 focused kind of way. One solution advocated by the National 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.840 League of Cities and others, is to put more infrastructure 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:32.080 assets in the hands of public private partnerships a k 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:36.080 a P three's. In these, a private sector company will 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:39.400 take on the financing, construction, and long term maintenance of 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.560 an infrastructure asset, with the costs spread out over the 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.240 life of that asset and will be paid through user 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:49.480 fees or taxes, while the government retains actual ownership of 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:55.280 the asset. Lamana has another idea for improving infrastructure. He said, 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:58.720 without getting to political, it would be awesome if we 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:03.520 had more engineers the government. As one, there are just 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.280 eight engineers in the U s House of Representatives and 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:09.080 one in the Senate, compared to a hundred and forty 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:12.680 four House members and fifty senators who have law degrees. 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:20.960 Today's episode is based on the article how bad is 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:24.440 America's Infrastructure Really? On how stuff works dot Com written 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.360 by Patrick J. Kaiger. Brain Stuff is production by Heart 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:29.680 Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.640 it is produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts from 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.719 my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:37.680 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.