Sarah's English 103 Blog: research sources

In 2007 it was reported that 73,000 bridges in the US were labeled as "structurally deficient."
Another 80,000 were reported "functionally obsolete."
Our nation's infrastructure received a grade of a D by the Federal Highway Administration.
Each year the government spends less money on maintaining our infrastructure.

Upgrading critical infrastructure can make a difference in the amount of damage done to cities by natural disasters.
Patrick J. Natale, executive director of the American Society for Civil Engineers said "The problem is, if you keep hammering a weak system, eventually it's going to poke a hole in it and then you're going to have a major disaster."
240,000 water main breaks are reported each year due to worn out infrastructure. This adds up to a loss of about 6 billion gallons of water per day.

This is a list of 10 roads, bridges, dams, levees etc. that are in need of serious repairs but have been neglected and now work is long overdue.
18% of the city of Atlanta's water supply is lost due to leaky pipes.
Engineers calculated that during any year there is a 1-in-6 chance that the Herbert Hoover Dike will fail, releasing Lake Okeechobee into the surround areas of Southern Florida, contaminating water supplies and threatening 40,000 lakeside residents with serious flooding.
Dover Bridge in Idaho was given an outrageously low "sufficiency rating" of 2 out of 100 in the National Bridge Inventory. Last year, a 30 x 30-in. piece of the deck was found hanging by its rebar. Nothing was done to fix the bridge because there are no funds for such a product.

The American Society of Civil Engineers asserted it would require an investment of $2.2 trillion over five years to get our infrastructure into shape.
The U.S. has seen decline in infrastructure spending, going from 3.1 percent of the nation's gross domestic product in 1963 to 2.4 percent in 2007.
America's drinking water systems need around $11 billion to replace facilities that are near the end of their lives and to comply with federal water regulations.

“Crumbling infrastructure has a direct impact on our personal and economic health, and the nation’s infrastructure crisis is endangering our future prosperity. Our leaders are looking for solutions to the nation’s current economic crisis. Not only could investment in these critical foundations have a positive impact, but if done responsibly, it would also provide tangible benefits to the American people, such as reduced traffic congestion, improved air quality, clean and abundant water supplies and protection against natural hazards.” - D. Wayne Klotz, president- American Society of Civil Engineers
Americans spend an estimated 4.2 billion hours a year stuck in traffic. 45 percent of major urban highways are congested.
Mass transit use increased 25 percent from 1995 to 2005, but nearly half of American households lack access to bus or rail transit.
Increasing delays airline passengers experience shows the need to modernize our outdated air traffic control system.

Sarah's English 103 Blog