Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issues a Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, rating the condition and performance of pubic bridges, dams, airports, flood protection levees, roads, water and sewer systems, waterways and transit systems in the familiar form of a school report card—assigning letter grades based on the physical condition and the need for investment to maintain or improve these assets. The report card was issued today and once again the news isn’t good. The ASCE once again rates our overall infrastructure at dismal D+ — with 4.5 trillion dollars in improvements needed to maintain and improve those aging systems www.infrastructurereportcard.org
Every year on average each of us spends 40 hours sitting in traffic and about $500 fixing cars damaged by broken roads. Someday when the chaos winds down Trump will demand that his minions throw some more chum in the water and we can then expect that some kind of crazy bedazzling bazillion dollar big and beautiful All-American infrastructure plan will be proposed to remedy those problems (or to distract us from some scandal). Democrats have expressed some willingness to work with the president on this. So I offer this brief diary as a word of caution.
Supporting T*rump’s infrastructure plan is bound to come at a steep price. It will no doubt be larded with misleading ‘public-private partnerships’ that will convert public assets to private toll facilities — some of them owned by anonymous foreign corporate interests (who of course are free to exercise their constitutional rights as ‘people’ to give unlimited campaign contributions).
While we desperately need to replace bridges, roads, public transit, water supply and treatment facilities — and the good paying jobs those projects have historically provided — watch for maneuvers to build them with ‘streamlined’ environmental review — ignoring the regulations that have protected our air, water, wetlands, endangered species, historic sites and properties and sacred sites and provided opportunity for public comment on the design and location of the proposed ‘improvements’. Look for Trump to exploit the desire for needed improvements to gut social and environmental justice protections and dispense with prevailing wages on these jobs.
Recognize the bait, look for hidden hooks and remember why there is always free cheese in a mousetrap.