Get to Know North Carolina’s Mediocre Infrastructure
June 5th, 2013 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
Today, North Carolina’s civil engineers released a new Infrastructure Report Card. After spending a year diving into the details of the state’s infrastructure – from bridges to beaches to dams – they determined that North Carolina’s infrastructure only deserved a mediocre C grade. Like many areas of the country, North Carolina has some work to do to make sure maintenance gets done, aging parts of the system get a modern overhaul, and the infrastructure keeps up with the state’s growth.
The state-wide report examined eleven categories of infrastructure, grading their capacity, resiliency, funding, and reliability. Here’s what they found:
- Aviation earned a D+, in part due to an estimated $763 million needed to bring all airports in the system to a state of good repair.
- Beaches and Inlets were awarded a C-. Many shoals and inlets are functioning at significantly less than authorized depths. Continued erosion of federal and state funding has a significant impact N.C.’s beaches and inlets.
- Bridges earned a C-. North Carolina’s bridges require $281 million more per year in order to make significant strides in raising the grade of North Carolina bridges.
- Dams earned the lowest grade of a D. Ten percent of North Carolina’s high hazard dams are deficient and only 34 percent have Emergency Action Plans. One-third of North Carolina’s dams are over 50 years old.
- Drinking Water earned a C+. North Carolina has over 530 public water systems which serve approximately 7.3 million North Carolinians (75 percent of the state’s population).
- Energy was awarded the highest grade in the report of a B+. North Carolina has a solid foundation of energy and energy infrastructure to meet its current and 20-year planning horizon needs.
- Rail earned a C+, in part due to only 30 percent of the state’s short lines being able to accommodate new, heavier rail cars. It is estimated that freight rail investment needs over the next 25 years will total $545 million.
- Roads earned a C. The scale of the state maintained highway network, current economic circumstances, and the trend of reducing the state transportation agency’s resources and personnel have been challenges to providing and maintaining a sustainable quality of service.
- Schools earned a C. Over 58 percent of North Carolina schools will require renovations in the next five years. Additionally, approximately 10 percent of students are in mobile classrooms. The projected cost to meet facility needs for the next five years is approximately $8.2 billion.
- Stormwater earned a grade of C-. Most of North Carolina’s population lives in communities that have no dedicated source of funding to improve stormwater quality. Statewide sources of funding such as the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund are being reduced and North Carolina’s communities have fewer and fewer options when trying to address their stormwater improvement needs.
- Wastewater earned a C. North Carolina has documented a need of over $4 billion of additional wastewater infrastructure investment needs through the year 2030. These funds are needed to replace aging facilities, comply with mandated Clean Water Act regulations, and keep pace with economic development.
Tags: bridges, continuing education, dams, energy, infrastructure, infrastructure report card, ports, rail transportation, roads, state report cards, transportation, wastewater, water infrastructure
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Congressional Budget Office Shows Concern for HTF
September 4th, 2012 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicts both accounts of the Highway Trust Fund will go broke sometime in FY 2015 unless Congress acts to shore up the fund that pays for surface transportation projects. According to a CBO chart obtained, the highway account will end FY 2012 with $8.7 billion and the transit account with $4.7 billion. The transit account could run dry in late 2014. ASCE has long supported an increase in the gas tax to provide additional revenues for investment in surface transportation systems, a move that has been supported by many economists as consistent with reducing the federal budget deficit. However, the political climate in Washington has not allowed a serious discussion on this matter in some time. More information on the gas tax can be found here and the CBO chart can be viewed on this site.
Transportation Appropriations Heading to House Floor
June 20th, 2012 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
The House Appropriations Committee marked up the Transportation and Housing & Urban Development appropriations bill, which passed by voice vote. The bill’s overall total of $51.6 billion in discretionary spending would be $3.9 billion less than fiscal 2012 and $1.9 billion less than the president’s request, however due to the current economic climate the cuts are not too bad. Overall, the House was kind to transportation programs, maintaining investment for highways and making minor increases for the FAA and Amtrak. One of the bigger cuts in the House bill is the zeroing out of the discretionary TIGER program, which provides grants for infrastructure projects that have national or regional significance. The full spending breakdown can be seen here:- Highways – Provides $39.1 billion from the Highway Trust Fund to be spent, the same level as last year and $2.7 billion below the President’s request.
- Air – The FAA would receive $12.6 billion, $91 million above last year’s level. The bill also provides nearly $1 billion for NextGen and rejects the Administration’s proposal for new aviation fees.
- Rail – The Federal Railroad Administration is funded with $2 billion, which is $384 million above last year’s level and $716 million below the President’s request. This funding includes $1.8 billion for Amtrak, to be primarily used for capital improvements.
- Transit – The Federal Transit Administration would receive $2 billion, which is $181 million below last year’s level and $546 million below the President’s request. The bill would also provide $1.8 billion for the “New Starts” program.
- Maritime – The bill includes $338 million for the Maritime Administration, a decline of $12 million from last year and $7 million below the President’s request.
- Safety – The bill includes $776 million for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a decrease of $23.8 million from last year; $551 million for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, a decrease of $2.6 million from last year; and $177 million for the Pipeline and Hazardous Safety Administration, an increase of $4 million from last year.
Tags: economics, infrastructure, legislation, roads, transportation
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Traffic Congestion is Hazardous to Your Health
June 8th, 2011 | By: America's Infrastructure Report Card
The Transportation Construction Coalition, of which ASCE is a member, recently released a study by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis on the public health cost of traffic congestion. The study, “The Public Health Costs of Traffic Congestion: A Health Risk Assessment”, found that emissions resulting from traffic congestion in the largest 83 metropolitan areas resulted in more than 2,200 premature deaths last year. Additionally, the public health cost was at least $18 billion.
Emissions from motor vehicles contain pollutants which add to air pollution. One pollutant specifically, PM2.5 (fine particulate matter) is responsible for one third of observed PM2.5 in urban areas as the result of vehicle emissions. While directly emitted from vehicles, PM2.5 can form as nitrogen oxide (NOX) or sulfur dioxide (SO2). Several studies have shown strong evidence that PM2.5 exposure has been associated with premature deaths and other health problems, specifically heart attack, strokes, asthma attacks and other respiratory issues. In the Center for Disease Control’s 2009 National Vital Statistics Report diseases of the heart was listed as the leading cause of death of death in the United States while, Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke) was fourth.
This study is the first attempt to quantify the public health implications of growing traffic congestion. The public health toll was highest in the Los Angeles area, followed by New York/New Jersey, Chicago, and San Francisco/Oakland; areas that rank high in traffic congestion as well. To make matters worse the study forecasts that in 18 metropolitan areas congestion will rise more than 30 percent by 2030.
Potential strategies to combat congestion are defined in the report and range from better traffic management through congestion pricing, traffic light synchronization, more efficient response to traffic incidents, and adding new highway and public transit capacity. The report did note that the number of premature deaths is currently declining due to low emission vehicles, but without further action could be on the rise again by 2030.
ASCE’s 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, graded roads a D- citing that collectively, Americans spend 4.2 billion hours stuck in traffic annually. With this significant amount of time stuck in traffic, inhaling noxious fumes, we should pursue improvements to our roads to relieve congestion.
