Neal Augenstein, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – A new report card on U.S. infrastructure gives Virginia a D+, Maryland a C-, and says 99 percent of D.C.’s roads are poor or mediocre.
The annual report from the American Society of Civil Engineers, gave the nation’s infrastructure a D+, estimating it would take an extra $1.6 trillion in spending over the next seven years to bring road, water, rail projects to desired levels.
The ASCE report card typically gives poor grades, but the group would also benefit financially if more construction projects to replace and repair the nation’s infrastructure were undertaken.
The findings come as no surprise to Stuart Freudburg, Evironmental Programs directors for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
“You have to spend money — in your home you have to maintain it, your car you have to maintain it, and these infrastructure systems if you don’t invest in them, they’re going to deteriorate,” Freudberg says.
Freudberg says this week’s massive water main break near Connecticut Avenue that leaves Maryland customers under water restrictions focuses a spotlight on the problem of not maintaining infrastructure.
“So now it’s visible. You see it. It caused power line damage, not just water. Almost 2 million people are conserving water because of one pipe,” he says.
“I’m hoping, in sort of a strange way, that this will give people the incentive to say ‘We have to spend the money to do this right,'” Freudberg says.
Read the full report on each jurisdiction:
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