Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
5 Facts about infrastructure
5 Facts about infrastructure
Jan 11, 2026 7:47 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
Environmental Stewardship News Round-Up (cont.)
The following items are the continuation of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation Newsletter, August 15, 2007: Those first five major developments are themselves worthy of an entire issue of this newsletter, and the last two are significant as well. But here are some additional stories worth noting since our last issue: 1. Natural explanation for all climate variability in last century? Science Daily, August 1, 2007 [University of Alabama climatologist Roy Spencer informed us of this article,...
Marketing is the New Finance
No doubt feeding the fears of those who believe that global corporations pose the greatest threat to the future flourishing of humanity, such multi-nationals are beginning to hire their own economists, much like governments have their own financial and economic experts. See, for instance, this interview on the WSJ Economics Blog with UC-Berkeley economist Hal Varian, who has taken a position as chief economist with Google, Inc. Where will Varian be focusing his attention? In his words, “I think marketing...
College Professors Biased Against Christians?
Many students who identify as Evangelical Christians and attend a state or public university are reporting severe bias against their beliefs in the classroom. “Tenured Bigots,” is the title of Mark Bergin’s article in World Magazine which highlights statistical proof of enormous prejudice by faculty members against evangelicals. Surprised? Of course not! The findings about attitudes toward Evangelicals actually turned up in a study designed to gauge anti-Semitism. The analysis was conducted by Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for...
The Global Warming Debate: Yada, Yada, Yada
I am not a prophet, not even a futurist. I do study trends, now and then, and I try to pay careful attention to popular culture. One thing I am quite sure about: global warming will be a central issue in public debates and political campaigns for some time e. It has e the Apocalypse Now issue of our generation. (Overpopulation, the nuclear threat and global cooling did it only a few decades ago.) The simple premise, virtually unchallenged in...
Asylum vs. Assistance
In connection to Acton’s recent coverage of the New Sanctuary Movement, which shelters illegal immigrants in churches to protect them from deportation, see this fascinating Christianity Today piece that explains the history of the church sanctuary concept. A few excerpts…. “As a product of a time when justice was rough and crude,” law professor Wayne Logan summarized in a 2003 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review article, “sanctuary served the vital purpose of staving off immediate blood revenge.” If the...
The Fate of the Family Farm
To hear the NYT tell it (and Sojourners, for that matter), the family farm is facing severe threats. With no small degree of dramatic flourish, the NYT editorial linked above concludes: For the past 75 years, America’s system of farm subsidies has unfortunately driven farming toward such concentration, and there’s no sign that the next farm bill will change that. The difference this time is that American farming is poised on the brink of true industrialization, creating a landscape driven...
Evangelizing the Powers
As one might infer from Lord Acton’s maxim, the question has been raised: Did proximity to political power corrupt Billy Graham’s chaplaincy to the presidency? GetReligion’s Douglas LeBlanc surveys the recent attention paid by the mainstream media to this part of Graham’s pastoral mission, and concludes in concord with Randall Balmer, “The gospel is better served when religious leaders keep a healthy distance from political power. The challenge for future presidents will be to find spiritual guidance and solace from...
The Greatest Lawsuit Ever
For your reading pleasure, I present you with a partial list of defendants from the case of Riches v. Bush et al: George W. Bush, Hillary Rodham Clinton, James Hoffa, , Pope Benedict XVI, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, John Deere, , Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Party, Roc-A-Fella Records, Shawn Carter (doing business at Jay-Z), Japan’s Nikkei Stock Exchange, Gambino (crime family), Three Mile Island, Tony Danza, Islamic Republic of Iran, University of Miami, GEICO Insurance, Jewish State of Israel, Soledad...
Youth and the Relevance of the Gospel
There’s been a spate of stories lately in various media about the difficulty that evangelical denominations are having keeping young adults interested in the life of the institutional church. Here’s one from USA Today, “Young adults aren’t sticking with church” (HT: Kruse Kronicle; Out of Ur). And here’s another from a recent issue of my own denomination’s magazine, The Banner, “Where Did Our Young Adults Go?” I wonder if the push to be “relevant,” initiated largely by the baby boomer...
Sicko and the Sick Man of the Great White North
Time sure does fly. It’s been almost two years since I called Canada’s government-run health care system “The Sick Man of the Great White North” and wrote: Canada’s system may be the gold standard for government-run health care, but only if you’re looking for a system that can’t provide essential medical services in a timely manner. Sadly, nothing much has changed in the interceding time between that post and now. In fact, things are very much the same: Canadians still...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved