Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
5 Facts about infrastructure
5 Facts about infrastructure
Apr 26, 2025 5:12 AM

President Trump has designated this week as “Infrastructure Week,” a time dedicated to “addressing America’s crumbling infrastructure.” Here are five facts you should know about America’s infrastructure.

1. The Federal government has defined infrastructure as the framework of interdependent networks and prising identifiable industries, institutions (including people and procedures), and distribution capabilities that provide a reliable flow of products and services essential to the defense and economic security of the United States, the smooth functioning of governments at all levels, and society as a whole.

2. Critical Infrastructures are infrastructures that are so vital that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating impact on defense or economic security. The Presidential Policy Directive on Critical Infrastructure Security identifies sixteen categories of critical infrastructure sectors and the executive agency in charge of maintaining their secure functioning: Chemical sector (Homeland Security (DHS)), Commercial Facilities Sector (DHS), Communications Sector (DHS), Critical Manufacturing Sector (DHS), Dams Sector (DHS), Defense Industrial Base Sector (DoD), Emergency Services Sector (DHS), Energy Sector (Dept. of Energy), Financial Services Sector (Treasury), Food and Agriculture Sector (USDA, HHS), Government Facilities Sector (DHS), Healthcare and Public Health Sector (HHS), Information Technology Sector (DHS), Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste Sector (DHS), Transportation Systems Sector (DHS, Dept. of Transportation), Water and Wastewater Systems Sector (EPA).

3. Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) provides prehensive assessment of 16 major infrastructure categories in ASCE’s Infrastructure Report Card. Each category receives a letter grade from A to F. For 2017 the ASCE gave these grades: Aviation (D); Dams (D); Energy (D+); Inland Waterways (D); Ports (C+); Rail (B); Schools (D+); Solid Waste (C+); Bridges (C+); Drinking Water (D); Hazardous Waste (D+); Levees (D); Public Parks (D+); Roads (D); Transit (D-); and Wastewater (D+).

4. According to the Federal Highway Administration, there are currently 4.12 million miles of road in the United States. The core of the nation’s highway system is the 47,575 miles of Interstate Highways, prise just over one percent of highway mileage but carry one-quarter of all highway traffic. The Interstates plus another 179,650 miles of major prise the National Highway System, which carries most of the highway freight and traffic in the U.S. Most of the roads in the U.S., 2.94 million miles, are located in rural areas, with the remaining 1.18 million miles located in urban areas. Of the 4.07 million miles of road, about 2.68 million miles are paved, which includes most roads in urban areas. However, 1.39 million miles or more than one-third of all road miles in the U.S. are still unpaved gravel or dirt roads. These are largely local roads or minor collectors in rural areas of the country. Between 2000 and 2013, the U.S. built an average of 13,788 center-line miles of new roads per year. The U.S. also has 614,387 bridges, almost four in 10 of which are 50 years or older. According to ASCE, almost ten percent of the nation’s bridges were structurally deficient in 2016, and on average there were 188 million trips across a structurally deficient bridge each day.

5. Most funding for the construction of es from the federal Highway Trust Fund, a dedicated, user fee-funded source. The primary funding source for this fund is the federal motor fuels tax. According to the ASCE, the tax of 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel has not been raised since 1993, and inflation has cut its purchasing power by 40 percent. In 2014, the federal government spent $43.5 billion on capital costs for highway infrastructure (including bridges) and state and local governments spent $48.3 billion. State and local governments are responsible for the operation and maintenance of all highways and roads not located on federal lands.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Is capitalism making us fat?
As workers emerge from the holidays an average of one pound heavier, weight loss tops every list of New Year’s resolutions. Yet in 2019, physicians are asking politicians to classify obesity as a disease to be treated by taxing sugary foods – and mentators are blaming our penchant for overindulgence on the capitalist system. If obesity is a disease, then in the West it is an epidemic. Some 40 percent of Americans and 30 percent of adults in the UK...
Alejandro Chafuen in Forbes: The U.S. economy in 2019 – challenges and lower expectations
Where is the economy heading in 2019? Changes in economic growth are much less volatile than the performance of stock markets. In order to forecast what will happen in an economy it is better to focus on the fundamentals, which is to say, examining causes rather than effects. In my forecast for 2018, I included as a factor of my optimism the increase in value of U.S. stocks during the first years of the presidency of Donald J. Trump. This...
The particular genius of conservatism
The U.S. Constitution is a work of both the historical experience of the Founding Fathers and of the eminently Protestant culture to which they belonged. It is probably futile to try to understand the legal meaning of the Constitution without first grasping its historical and cultural significance. In the Federalist Papers, John Jay makes an unequivocal defense of mon understanding among the Framers: that the nascent republic was blessed because its citizens shared the same language, religion, and ancestries. In...
Radio Free Acton: A first step towards criminal justice reform; The human cost of unemployment part II
On this episode of Radio Free Acton, producer Caroline Roberts speaks with Sarah Estelle,associate professor of economics at Hope College. Caroline and Sarah discuss the subject of criminal justice reform in light of the recently passed, bipartisan bill, The First Step Act, covering specific policies in the new bill and effects of the current criminal system. After that, award winning reporter Anne Marie Schieber continues exploring the effects of unemployment. Last week,we showed the importance of being in the right...
Reviving the spirit of free trade
The current support for tariffs in the United States has left me disappointed, frustrated, and in many unproductive debates. The French political philosopher, Frédéric Bastiat, best articulated my sentiments in an 1847 letter to Richard Cobden, “And I want not so much free trade itself as the spirit of free trade for my country. Free trade means a little more wealth; the spirit of free trade is a reform of the mind itself, that is to say, the source of...
6 Quotes: Richard John Neuhaus on politics and religion
Richard John Neuhaus, founder of First Things magazine, died ten years ago today. Fr. Neuhaus was a Lutheran minister before ing a Catholic priest, and a radical liberal activist before ing a leading voice for religious and political conservatives. In honor of this anniversary of his passing, here are six quotes by Fr. Neuhaus on politics and religion: On politics, culture, and religion: “Politics is chiefly a function of culture, at the heart of culture is morality, and at the...
Explainer: What you should know about the U.S. president’s emergency powers
What just happened? Last Friday President Trump said he was considering using his national emergency powers to secure funding for the construction of a border wall between U.S.-Mexico border. “We can call a national emergency and build it very quickly,” said the president. What are national emergency powers? The President of the United States has certain powers that may be exercised in the event that the nation is threatened by crisis, exigency, or emergency circumstances (other than natural disasters, war,...
How do we measure inflation?
Note: This is post #105 in a weekly video series on basic economics. Inflation is an average rise in prices. But how exactly is this average rise in prices measured? In this video by Marginal Revolution University,Alex Tabarrok explains how inflation in the United States can be measured using theBureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI)—a weighted average of the price increases. We can calculate the inflation rate by the percentage change in the CPI over a given period...
6 Quotes by Teddy Roosevelt on virtue and character
Yesterday was the centennial anniversary of the death of Theodore Roosevelt. There are many areas of policy and politics where those of us at the Acton Institute would differ with America’s 26th president. But we share mitment to virtue and character, and its importance for both individual flourishing and for public life. In honor of this anniversary, here are six quotes by Roosevelt on those character and virtue: On virtue and success in life: “There are many qualities which we...
What Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets wrong about Europe
During her interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, newly sworn in Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez justified her vision of democratic socialism by invoking a caricature of Europe. When asked if she wanted to turn the United States into a version of Venezuela or the Soviet Union, Ocasio-Cortez demurred with an incredulous smile. “What we have in mind,” she said, according to the transcript, “and what of my — and my policies most closely re— resemble what we see in the U.K.,...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved