U.S. Gets Ds on Infrastructure Report Card

(CBS)  The current financial crisis in the United States is making a bad problem even worse - namely, the sorry state of highways and other core infrastructure components. CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports on this problem in Los Angeles - and how it echoes around the country.

The cab of a fire engine was almost totally devoured by a 15-foot sinkhole in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley Tuesday - the result of a broken water main. It came just three days after an even bigger break down the road washed away cars and flooded residents and businesses for blocks.

With aging infrastructure failing so spectacularly, the mayor of L.A. says the city is playing catch up when it comes to repair.

"Some of these pipes are more than 100 years old," said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Failing infrastructure is not just an L.A. problem. Further north, workers scrambled to reopen the 73-year old Bay Bridge between San Francisco and Oakland after finding a crack in a steel beam. The bridge was severely damaged and refurbished after the 1989 earthquake.

But it's not just earthquake-prone California that's falling apart. And it's not just bridges and water mains, but also airports, dams, roadways, sewers and more.

In their annual report card, the nation's civil engineers give the whole country poor grades for infrastructure.

"It'd be nifty if we could get all our grades in the country up to a C or even up to a B," said Mike Kincaid of the American Society of Civil Engineers. "And I think we have a lot of work to do before we get to that point."

Remember the Minneapolis bridge collapse two years ago? Today, more than 150,000 bridges across the country still are in urgent need of repair - including 30 percent of bridges in California, 40 percent of bridges in New York, and 57 percent of bridges in Rhode Island.

The federal government is pumping $100 billion in stimulus money into fixing infrastructure.

But the nation's engineers say it would take $2.2 trillion over five years to fix everything.

"We need to be proactive in this, not reactive," Kincaid said.

That means putting money in, before you end up hauling fire engines out.

[Sloughfoot]

"California" Everything is a tragedy of epic proportions in California, ever wonder why?

[pickaguitar1]

Thanks bush!

[lovetheair]

OK, then that means we pay NO taxes! Get real. No one is saying the government has no role in our lives, but lets limit it. Infrastructure is very important, more important that a mouse in San Fran, more important than pig odor research, National endowment for the Arts, Sesame Street (and they make millions in products, yet we subsidize them), and I could go on and on. Cut the pork.

[bubbadubba]

Where I live I give everything an A.
I travel a lot and the roads are great.
We have never had a bridge collapse.
Everyone that wants it has electricity and only the most remote sparse locations have no access to clean safe water but they can use wells since that water is good also.
Showing a fire truck sunk where a water main burst does not impress me or scare me into thinking our country is falling apart.
I think things are as good as possible.
Next scare tactic story please, you are boring me CBS.

[imprisoncheney]

Just another example of the Neocon(victs) plan to make the US into a third-world country . . . so we will be ripe for a reichwing coup d'etat (paging Diick Cheney!).

The weepublicans have never been shy about it, either. They have consistently voted to slash federal funds for infrastructure spending -- unless it involved their own, pet districts/states -- all in an effort to show how incompetent BIG government (subliminal message: Democrat-controlled) was/is . . . and, so their good buddies in private enterprise could be awarded obscene, no-bid government contracts to do the very same work -- while pocketing a cool 30% right off the top . . . hey! it works for defense contractor mafias -- why not???

And, besides, it's not like our Royal Legislators have to actually travel on these roadways or bridges . . . no siree! -- they're helicoptered in, or use private corporate jets to ferry themselves around . . . they're not about to put themselves, or their families in jeopardy!

Unless the infrastructure work can be outsourced to cheap Mexican/Indian/Chinese slave-wage labor markets -- using the worst materials possible -- fuggedaboudit! Why should the weepublicans want to put American workers to work??? -- that would only make things better . . .

The whole idea is to bring the country to its knees -- is it supposed to be a secret?

[STBY21]

Its amazing how much we have spent in signage to advertise these American reinvestment and recovery act projects yet most of them have very little activity in them. Weren't these the jobs that would start immediately with "stimulus" money? Wasn't this the area that all the jobs would be created? Where are the jobs. Great, we are now only losing 200,000 jobs per month.


"Shovel ready project" anyone?

[dahizzle]

>>>Weren't these the jobs that would start immediately with "stimulus" money?<<<

Where did you read that? You think Bush's mess is going to be cleaned up in months? Both sides of the aisle stated months ago, 'It's gonna be years....'

[ffoulkes-2009]

Didn't have to read anything. Obama has repeatedly stated that the stimulus was for 'shovel ready' jobs. In other words jobs that are ready right now to begin. What is taking so long? The jobs are there...The funding is there...

[babooph]

The US is spending a FORTUNE ,building fantastic new roads ,bridges & supplying good healthcare,with no pesty paperwork or local costs-too bad it is all in Iraq,Afghanistn & Israel.

[maiingan]

That fire truck in the hole in the San Fernando Valley? It fell into a cave-in; this is NOT a "sinkhole." Sinkholes involve bedrock; the alluvium there is too deep for sinkholes to form. I'd like to see some tax dollars spent to teach journalists the correct terms to use from various scientific disciplines so they lay off this hype garbage.

[debinok1]

Armenia Infastructure grant-- $2,307,928
Etheopia Human Rights grant-- $1,028,000
USAID Cattle and climate change grant-- $10,000,000
Senegal Education grant-- $40,000,000
Dominican Republic public service grant-- $4,169,697
Dominican Republic community development-- $5,000,000
Bangkok Administrative Law program-- $2,000,000
Bangkok Criminal Justice program-- $2,000,000
Kenya gender and sexual violence program-- $5,000,000
Pakistan jobs program-- $80,000,000
Haiti community care program-- $125,000,000
Pakistan Entrepreneurs program-- $30,000,000

That is $306,505,625 of OUR TAX DOLLARS being sent overseas while this country falls apart. That is ONLY part of the FIRST page of the aid grants we send overseas.

[lovetheair]

I agree. Lets stop with the foreign handouts.

[debinok1]

How about we stop sending foreign aid ANYWHERE. We spend BILLIONS every year on foreign aid, we finance education, medical, and infastructure in other countries while our own education, medical and infastructures are going to pot. For once why don't we fix our OWN MESS before we start trying to fix the worlds.