Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
5 Facts about infrastructure
5 Facts about infrastructure
Dec 23, 2025 8:22 PM

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
Letter from Rome: Amazonian myths, civilizational despair
We should be skeptical of conspiracy theories, mainly because they assume too much skill and intelligence from conspirators. Experience tells us ignorance and petence are much mon among those holding power and influence. Then again, some “coincidences” are equally hard to believe. The ongoing hysteria about fires in the es just ahead of October’s Synod of Bishops from the Amazon region is one such instance. Environmentalists and their celebrity friends wasted little time in spreading myths about the fires and...
The most important economic chart in Western civilization
James Pethokoukis of AEI says this is the most important economic chart in Western civilization. pletely agree. The concept is so important that no student should receive a passing grade in any economics class—whether in high school or college—unless they can explain why economic growth matters (ideally, every educated Christian would be able to do so too since it has theological implications). Yet, sadly, few Americans recognize its importance despite the fact, as Pethokoukis notes, that in real terms, the...
Karl Marx: Intellectual father of the 1619 Project?
TheNew YorkTimes’1619 Projectseeks toestablishthe moment the first slave ship landed in Virginia as “a new point of origin for our national story,” because“nearly everything that has made America exceptional grew out of slavery.” The series – which attempts to link American prosperity, our economic system, even our lack of asingle-payer healthcare systemto slavery – can count at least one prominent thinker as a supporter: Karl Marx. The father munism anticipated theTimes’ view that the U.S. economy owes its might entirely...
Acton Line podcast: Why we need the Religious Freedom Restoration Act; The truth about recession rumors
On November 16, 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) into law, a bill backed by nearly unanimous bipartisan support. While RFRA has since then protected the religious liberty of American citizens, it has lost many of its original supporters and is now under attack. So why was RFRA signed into law in the first place? Does the bill truly protect religious pluralism? Daniel Mark, a professor of political science at Villanova University, helps answer these...
Neo-Roman and Christian conceptions of liberty
What do we mean when we talk about “liberty?” While it may appear that we all use the word in the same way, closer examination reveals that Americans have a wide range of meanings for the term. For instance, when those of us at Acton refer to liberty we tend to have in mind the definition we use in our “core principles”: Liberty, in a positive sense, is achieved by fulfilling one’s nature as a person by freely choosing to...
A more robust vision of labor and solidarity
In this week’s Acton Commentary, “Your work is more than your job,” I try to provide a broader perspective on the dynamics of a proper “work-life balance.” My main point, as the title indicates, is that our paid work is just a part–an important part no doubt, but just a part–of our “work,” understood as the service that we are called to do for others. The point of departure for this piece is Labor Day, which was observed this week...
The ‘Forgotten Man’ at the Piggly Wiggly
“Want a job at the Pig?” asked my best friend Steve. By my reaction, you would have thought he’d asked if I wanted a date with Kathy Ireland rather than inquiring about a job as a grocery sacker at the Piggly Wiggly. But I was living at Steve’s parent’s house rent-free, and needed to earn some money. And in Clarksville, Texas in 1985, the prospects of an inexperienced teen finding a good job were only slightly better than chances of...
Robert Nisbet on Tradition and Revolt
It is mon theme in fairy tales and other stories that the loser of the struggle will tell the victor that their victory e with a cost. We see a similar theme in the Bible with the prophets–perhaps most famously when Israel finally gets the king they wanted so they could be like the other nations. Samuel warns them—you have gotten your desires, but they e at a cost. Robert Nisbet uses a similar image in the introduction to Tradition...
Scruton and McGilchrist on Bach, the ‘tyranny of pop,’ and the gullibility of our age
The other evening I was at a pool with my family. It was beautiful and warm, and we decided to order some pizza and have dinner at one of the tables overlooking the pool. As we sat and talked and enjoyed blue sky and full trees of late summer, I realized that I could hear the background sounds of children laughing and talking and of water splashing. It was noticeably different and pleasant. Then it struck me that the music...
What would life be like without capitalism?
The Fund for American Studies has a superb It’s a Wonderful Life-style video about life without capitalism. The video not only shows what life would be like if we banned free enterprise (i.e., a lot like Soviet Russia) but also makes the point that when you lose economic freedom you lose other freedoms too. As the angel says, “When you take away the carrot, all you’re left with is the stick. My favorite part of the video: Anti-capitalist activist: “I...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved