One of the experts who grades U.S. utilities every four years explains what needs to be fixed
After months of negotiation and debate, the U.S. House of Representatives could be poised to pass a two-part legislative package aimed at overhauling the country's notoriously aging infrastructure.
This means the other part-the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or IIJA-remains in limbo.
"You can't build a healthy economy on a crumbling infrastructure," says Maria Lehman, president-elect of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Every four years this professional organization publishes a report card on U.S. utilities, issuing letter grades in 17 categories such as roads, internet access and drinking water-and the grades rarely rise above a D. "We've had many, many, many decades of taking our infrastructure for granted," Lehman points out.
"And it's all coming due at the same time." Scientific American spoke with Lehman about what's broken, whether the IIJA's $1 trillion investment can fix it, and what happens if the federal government fails to invest in infrastructure.
Most of our infrastructure is old and tired, and was not built for today's needs.
The infrastructure bill itself is supplementing that by $550 billion.
The bill, as it stands right now, is more than we've ever invested, and in some categories of infrastructure, it's as much as double.
Identifying the gaps, it basically said that the average family is going to lose $3,300 a year based on infrastructure [failures].
The lack of infrastructure investment is already impacting families at over $3,000 a year.