A not-so-funny thing happened last week that detoured our whole nation away from what was supposed to be “Infrastructure Week,” where the president was to unveil a set of plans to fix our ailing roads, rail, aviation, water pipes and electric grid.
Too bad, because America’s pipes, bridges and municipal arteries are rusting from decades of neglect. This is a multi-trillion dollar problem that is much, much bigger than the pesky potholes we dodged during last winter’s storms.
While Trump and his ex-FBI chief traded tweets and testimony last week calling each other liars, the big announcements for a $2 trillion infrastructure plan got shifted to the back pages of the news.
Here in Sonoma County, there were some pieces of infrastructure news, but not the “bigger picture” view. We didn’t hear why the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) just gave our nation’s transportation, commerce and communications networks a D+ report card. (a ‘D’ grade or below means “poor, at risk.”)
Yes, the first phase of the “Big Pave” for Highway 101 between Windsor and Geyserville (and eventually to Cloverdale) was started last week. And, the widened Highway 12 Laguna Bridge (built in 1921) at the entrance to Sebastopol is being completed in a few weeks. Also, county supervisors announced plans to complete 54 miles of rural road repairs this summer. This is all good infrastructure news, but it is barely a beginning.
What do we mean when we talk about infrastructure, anyway? When we talk about putting America first or making America great again, isn’t fixing our roads, airports and bridges at the top of the list? Aren’t we talking about the skeleton, muscles and vital organs that support our nation, cities and regions? These are public utilities and institutions that connect our travel, commerce, electricity, water and energy. Some might also include public education, health services and social security.
Sonoma County’s economy and well-being can’t function without passable roads, reliable electric grids, water delivery utilities and the municipal workers to maintain them. America can’t be great as a political force or world leader if it can’t provide drinking water to all its citizens, or safe air travel, uncongested continental highways, open ports and modern power plants.
Last week’s big Infrastructure plan by Trump offered no blueprints or details and only $200 billion in new federal funds, promising another $800 billion from private businesses via offsets from Trump tax cuts. Altogether that is $2.7 trillion short of what the ASCE report card said would be needed just to repair what is already broken.
The ASCE annual survey said 42 percent of our nation’s highways are “congested” and cost us 1.9 billion gallons of wasted gasoline. The cost of “rust” to our shipping fleet, car brakes, water pipes and bridges costs $400 billion annually, the engineers group also reported. The Federal Highway Administration says that 30 percent of our nation’s highways have “exceeded life expectancy.”
Almost sounds like a third world country, doesn’t it?
Sonoma County has plenty of its share of rusty infrastructure and rutty roads, too. Like the Trump plan, local government budgets continue to fall behind basic maintenance needs, let alone funding more Big Pave, retrofitted bridges or traffic decongestion projects.
Local taxpayers are doing their share. Next year our California gas tax gets boosted by 12 cents a gallon. We just increased our tourist tax to supplement the county roads budget. Local taxes have been paying for 75 percent of all our nation’s roads and transportation needs in the last several decades, with just 25 percent funded by Congress.
Obviously our local and national infrastructure requires more than a week’s attention, as Trump tried to sell us. America will not be great — now, ever or again — until our leaders look farther ahead than just their next election.
There are no quick payoffs in the infrastructure game, just quick collapses.
