The US is literally falling apart. The most authoritative report of the nation’s infrastructure on Thursday gave the country’s crumbling roads, bridges, dams, schools and other essential underpinnings a “D+” grade.
Not a single element of the US’ framework received an “A” grade.
The American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) quadrennial infrastructure “report card” painted a grim picture of the US’ backbone.
According to the organization’s analysis, there has not been much improvement in the state of the US’ transportation, water, energy, education and waste management programs since the last report was released, in 2013.
The report comes after US President Donald Trump pledged to rebuild the US’ broken infrastructure on the campaign trail, plans that appear to have stalled amid a backlash against government spending. It also comes after a series of disasters, including lead in the water of Flint, Michigan, and other municipalities, and the evacuation of 20,000 in California after the near-collapse of a major dam.
The report card, broken into sections, analyzes aviation (D), bridges (C+), dams (D), drinking water (D), energy (D+), hazardous waste (D+), inland waterways (D), levees (D), parks and recreation (D+), ports (C+), railways (B), roads (D), schools (D+), solid waste (C), public transit (D-) and wastewater (D+) resources.
Of the 16 categories, seven had shown minor improvements and three had declined, with the remainder maintaining the same dismal grades.
The overall “D+” score was consistent with the findings of the 2013 report.
ASCE says in its report that the country faces more than US$2 trillion in infrastructure funding shortfalls, which it estimates will cost the wider US economy US$3.9 trillion and 2.5 million domestic jobs by 2025.
The ASCE estimates the average cost to US families in time lost in traffic, delayed flights and other infrastructure snafus is US$3,400 in disposable income a year.
“While our nation’s infrastructure problems are significant, they are solvable,” ASCE president Norma Jean Mattei said in a statement. “We need our elected leaders — those who pledged to rebuild our infrastructure while on the campaign trail — to follow through on those promises with investment and innovative solutions that will ensure our infrastructure is built for the future.”
Bud Wright, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, echoed the dire sentiments expressed in ASCE’s report, saying that long-term funding issues needed to be solved to reverse the decline seen over the past two decades.
“The grades in the ASCE Report Card provide yet another example of what occurs when a nation underinvests in the critical infrastructure systems that support economic development and quality of life,” he said.
The grading system is simple: A = exceptional, fit for the future; B = good, adequate for now; C = Mediocre, requires attention; D = poor, at risk; F = failing, unfit for purpose.
The ASCE handed out only one “B” grade, to railways, and not a single “A.”
Roads and aviation, among the lowest-scoring categories in the report, are perhaps the most visible to the average American.
ASCE says that increasing passenger volume at airports around the country could soon lead to Thanksgiving holiday levels of congestion at 24 of 30 major facilities.
Thanks to a fifth of US roads being in poor condition, traffic delays are on the rise on the country’s roads.
ASCE says the decline cost motorists and shippers US$160 billion in wasted fuel and time in 2014.
In its study of 471 urban areas, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute put the cost of 14.7 million hours of road traffic delays at US$338 million in 2014 — or US$960 per commuter.
Congestion on the country’s 40,230km of inland waterways is also on the rise, thanks to a surfeit of aging locks and dams, most of which have stood for more than half a century. Delays and stoppages risk limiting the movement of 600 million tonnes of freight — 14 percent of the US’ annual freight tonnage.
The nation’s dams also fared poorly in ASCE’s report. The average age of 90,580 dams across the country is 56 years, and ASCE estimates that US$45 billion is needed to repair 15,500 high-hazard dams.
Downstream from reservoirs, an aging network of drinking water pipes requires attention to the tune of US$1 trillion over the next 25 years, according a report to the American Water Works Association.
ASCE says an estimated 240,000 water main failures every year waste 7.56 trillion liters of treated drinking water.
Along with its gloomy assessment of the US’ ailing infrastructure, ASCE also offered suggestions to help fix it. Among them were increasing investment from federal, state and local agencies from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent of GDP over the next decade, raising fuel taxes and educating Americans about the true cost of providing robust infrastructure.
The organization also suggested leveraging limited funding, streamlining development regulations, embracing emerging technologies and investing in better land use planning and expanded research and development.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy