The faults in our country’s infrastructure
By: Nicole Spindler
Since the beginning of the Trump administration, the President’s Federal Transit Administration has been declining deals with states to supply funding to repair infrastructure designs that are over a century old. Although Trump made a $1 trillion infrastructure promise at the beginning of his term, making his plan become a reality is proving to be an obstacle.
Local officials are announcing the potential consequences of further delaying the repairs any longer. Any fault or signs of potential collapse could shut down the transportation system for months, making commuting a nightmare.
Two projects that are in critical need of repair are the Northeast Corridor, connecting Washington, D.C. and Boston, and the Hudson tunnels, for they carry hundreds of thousands of people daily. If one of these connections was to be shut down, according to The Washington Post, it could cost the economy roughly $100 million per day. The problems are evident, however getting the right amount of funding is the true battle because of the huge sums of money that need to be allocated for these projects.
Although the House and Senate have included the appropriate amount of money for the projects like the Northeast Corridor, what is holding back the start of these projects is that the White House is demanding billions of dollars for a wall along the border of Mexico. Back in late 2016, some of the nation’s largest engineering and construction giants hired a former Republican House staffer to serve as a lobbyist for transportation issues.
Through this coalition of firms and the support from Amtrak, they hope that businesses that have influence on many issues concerning the capital might pull to win federal funding for a transportation network that they use every day. Civil engineers are estimating that to fix the infrastructure it will take about $4.6 trillion.
Another reason why it is difficult to allocate the appropriate amount of money is because Congress passed a tax bill that will increase the federal deficit by roughly $1 trillion. The Northeast Corridor would need $200 billion in federal funding, however for Trump to sign any deals for fixing infrastructure, applications would need to be evaluated based on how much revenue local governments could raise to match any allocations.
A potential idea in the running to get the funding is that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has proposed raising the gas tax to pay for infrastructure projects, however several conservative Republications are showing opposition to the idea.
The U.S. population has been non-stop growing over the course of our history and practically everything that was built during the Industrial Revolution through the Roaring Twenties is now desperate for repairs. The capacity, quality and reliability of transportation systems is a primary concern for metropolitan areas. The biggest unanswered question that still remains is whether or not Trump will keep his promises.
