AGC San Diego CONSTRUCTOR Magazine 2018 - Volume 3 2018 Volume 3 | Page 16

ENGINEERING
A Failure to Act
By Mike McManus, Director of Engineering Construction & Industry Relations
Recent national studies have consistently
sounded the alarm on the state of the nation’s
infrastructure, its growing effects on our economy
and the growing gap in available funding to meet
our future needs. American power rests on a sturdy
economic, military and infrastructure foundation
that took many generations to build. Is this the
generation where that power starts to erode? I
believe it could be if we fail to act. One such test
is coming up in early November here in California.
We must not fail to act.
According to the American Society of Civil
Engineers, the nation’s infrastructure earned
a “D+” in the 2017 Infrastructure Report Card.
California faces some of the largest infrastructure
challenges in the country:
• Driving on roads in need of repair in California,
costs each motorist approximately $844 per
year
• 5.5% of bridges are rated structurally deficient
• An estimated $44.5 billion in drinking water
infrastructure needs over the next 20 years
• $26.2 billion in wastewater infrastructure
needs over the next 20 years
• 678 dams are considered to be high-hazard
potential
• Schools have an estimated capital
expenditure gap of $3.2 billion
16 AGCSD.ORG
The quality of our
infrastructure
has
long been considered
a significant public
safety concern. Safe,
well maintained and
efficient roads not only
prevent accidents but also carry first responders to
medical and fire emergencies. The recent bridge
failures around the world should teach us that
the 1600 bridges in California that are deemed
structurally deficient are just not acceptable.
Nationwide, the funding gap for maintaining our
roads is reported to be over a trillion dollars over
the next seven years.
Safe drinking water is something most Americans
have never had to even contemplate, let alone
be concerned about. Then we heard of the Flint,
Michigan disaster which may be a prescient event
for other parts of the country. It is not just the critical
public safety issue of safe drinking water, it’s also
the growing problem of water supply. The water
supply along with the supply of electricity is now
affecting the disposable incomes of families across
the country, and especially here in California.
This is a growing expense for business, which
means rising prices for everyone. The funding gap
over the next seven years to maintain our water,
wastewater and electrical grid is reported to be
$300 billion across the country.
This
deteriorating
infrastructure
impedes
California’s ability to compete in an increasingly
global marketplace. Success in a 21st century
economy requires serious, sustained leadership
on infrastructure investment at all levels of
government.
Delaying
these
investments
only escalates the cost and risks of an aging
infrastructure system, an option that the country,
California, and families can no longer afford. But
the larger question at stake is the implication of D+
infrastructure on America’s economic future.