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The nation's roads, bridges, levees, schools, water supply and other infrastructure are in such bad shape that it would take $2.2 trillion over five years to bring them up to speed. But even that huge chunk of change would only raise their grade from a "D" average to a "B," according to the latest "Report Card for America's Infrastructure" released today by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

"We've been operating on a patch-and-pray system," says ASCE President D. Wayne Klotz. That is, patch something and pray that it holds up—instead of providing regular improvements for aging facilities.

Like a car, he notes, if you keep skipping oil changes and ignoring the funny clanking noise, it's going to be a lot more expensive to fix the major problems happen down the proverbial road.  In fact, the current estimate of $2.2 trillion is 70 percent more than the $1.8 trillion the ASCE estimated it would cost to bring the U.S. infrastructure up to par four years ago. And the D grade has remained the same.

"It's the kind of report card you would have expected on the eve of the collapse of the Roman Empire," says Stephen Flynn, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think tank in New York. "It's not the kind of grade you want to bring home to Mom."

Flynn says a major problem is that we take the infrastructure for granted, which makes it difficult to generate awareness until there's a major event, such as the 2007 fatal bridge collapse in Minneapolis or levee failures during deadly Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 

"There's no sex appeal to invest in it, so we don't," he says.

Among those receiving D– grades: roads, levees, drinking water facilities (leaky water pipes lose about seven billion gallons of clean water in the U.S. daily, according to the report) and inland waterways. Solid waste was at the top of the class, earning a C+—the same grade it received on the last report card—because about a third of the millions of tons of garbage generated in the U.S. annually is recycled or otherwise repurposed.

Klotz says the report card, issued every four years since 1998, was released two months earlier than usual this year in the hope that it might encourage lawmakers to fork over more federal funds (in the pending $819 billion stimulus package) to overhaul the near-failing system.

Following are the ASCE infrastructure grades, which were  based on an analysis of government records by a panel of engineers.

Aviation D
Bridges C
Dams     D
Drinking Water D–
Energy D+
Hazardous Waste D
Inland Waterways D-
Levees D–
Public Parks & Recreation C–
Rail C–
Roads D–
School D
Solid Waste C+
Transit D
Wastewater D–

Overall: D

12 Comments

1. 1. schauba 07:55 PM 1/28/09

   When you consider our current economic state of affairs and the Obama administration's intended focus on infrastructure, it seems like a chocolate and peanut butter combination to me.

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2. 2. wfitz1964 10:57 PM 1/28/09

   For many years the US has played russian roulett with infrastructure. Another way of putting it is putting off what should have been done toady for tommorow. Well tommorow is here . We can spend billions building up countries like Iraq after we bombed them . We spent trillions on miltary budgets that are of questionable priority. We spent trillions on many projects that only benifits a few .
   I like what Obama is doing but will it work ?

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3. 3. ranlin 01:04 AM 1/29/09

   The Department of Homeland Security Risk Infrastructure Protection grants reward their management when they keep infrastructure risk protected by ignoring problems that they will go away instead of doing what is "written" legal laws to compensate management not those WTC federal responders under the public safety officer's death compensation with a 3 yr limitation as no responses, no documentation, no questions answered for the time is on their side instead of time being on the side of a human being's life. Why would infrastructure have to be a protected risk if there is nothing to hide aka protect privacy or reward for keeping a secret? The infrastructure is more important to keep it within a structure but remember what goes around eventually comes back around so why not just do what should have been done from the beginning it is harder to remember lies than it is to remember the truth.

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4. 4. ildenizen 12:26 PM 1/29/09

   I am sure there would be a ton of people who would liken infrastructure renovation programs as "pork". Go figure.

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5. 5. doghorse2 03:05 PM 1/30/09

   Our goverment needs to quit trying to be all things to all our people. Instead of 150 billion for education that money should have gone to infrastructure. The 700 billion bank bailout should be only for military,infrastructure and goverment hired doctors. The goverment needs to deal with original intent. Pay for standing armed forces,roads and infrastructure and medical care for all it's people. After that if there is a tax surplus fund some future investment only. All educational,welfare,and political pork needs to stop now.

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6. 6. Afterlife 05:49 PM 1/30/09

   It's funny how the infrastructure in many other countries like China, Holland, Dubai, Germany etc. last longer and is in much better condition than ours. Even worse, the Egyptian Pyramids!!! but yet we are supposedly the richest country in the world. PATHETIC....very disappointing. Will someone give me a hammer please??

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7. 7. Afterlife in reply to Iahmad 05:50 PM 1/30/09

   Oh and I agree with Iahmad (-_-)

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8. 8. eco-steve 04:51 PM 2/3/09

   Perhaps it should be remembered the apalling state of national infrastructure in Britain before the second world war. The solution adopted was to nationalise them all. The effect was dramatic : all infrastructure became efficient and well-maintained. Since privatisation, British Industry has once again been suffering from neglect. Just look at the poor state of maintenance of the railway system! We really should bury free market policy for good!

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9. 9. TheJerseyDevil in reply to wfitz1964 08:38 PM 8/31/09

   I will change the world

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10. 10. TheJerseyDevil 08:40 PM 8/31/09

    If someone had a plan to save the levees of the U.S. who would he or she present them to?

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11. 11. Lucus009 06:44 PM 9/1/09

    I'm just an ignorant teenager but this infastructure thing seems like a good reason to have to government step in and have out of work people work on it. I'm not into politics and I don't know why the federal government stopped supporting the states with money to fix those things but if they stepped in it would create jobs and all that happy stuff. We would be able to compete globally because traffic jams would occur less often and we would be able to ship products around. For all I know this is already whats been talked about but it does make since.

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12. 12. Lucus009 06:44 PM 9/1/09

    I'm just an ignorant teenager but this infastructure thing seems like a good reason to have to government step in and have out of work people work on it. I'm not into politics and I don't know why the federal government stopped supporting the states with money to fix those things but if they stepped in it would create jobs and all that happy stuff. We would be able to compete globally because traffic jams would occur less often and we would be able to ship products around. For all I know this is already whats been talked about but it does make since.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this