population has more than doubled since the 1960s, when most of the country’s major infrastructure systems were designed. What is the overall state of the nation’s infrastructure? A 2014 University of Maryland study found that infrastructure investments added as much as $3 to gross domestic product (GDP) growth for every $1 spent, with a bigger effect during a recession. Economists generally see infrastructure spending as having a significant “multiplier effect,” meaning that the economic gains are greater than the amount spent. competitiveness, insulate the economy from shocks, and create jobs. By increasing efficiency and reliability and lowering transportation costs, it would boost long-term U.S. Many analysts say that investing in both new infrastructure and current maintenance would stimulate the economy. But some studies have found that delays and avoided trips due to the poor state of the nation’s airports cost the economy over $35 billion per year. jobs, and international tourism brings in hundreds of billions of dollars of tax revenue. Airports are another choke point: air transportation services support 1.4 million U.S. In addition to the threat to human safety of catastrophic failures such as bridge collapses or dam breaches, inadequately maintained roads, trains, and waterways cost billions of dollars in lost economic productivity.Īccording to Petroski, the delays caused by traffic congestion alone cost the economy over $120 billion per year. And as engineer and historian Henry Petroski explains in his book The Road Taken: The History and Future of America’s Infrastructure, poor infrastructure can impose large costs on the U.S. economy?Įconomists argue that robust investment in infrastructure in the twentieth century set the foundation for the nation’s strong growth in the aftermath of World War II. How important is infrastructure to the U.S. In November 2021, Congress approved the largest federal investment in decades. With the COVID-19 pandemic delivering a major economic shock, President Joe Biden has rolled out a sweeping plan to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure. Others argue that increased public spending will be necessary to meet the country’s growing needs. Skeptics of federal spending have pushed for new models of private sector involvement, which they say is more efficient and cost-effective. The Pittsburgh Bridge Collapse and the Importance of Infrastructure Investment
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