Time to Repair and Restore

By Charles Alexander

Neglected streets and sewers, plus aged bridges and byways, hinder growth

From the rusting spans of its once proud bridges to the leaking sewers beneath its streets, America is structurally unsound. Highways are crumbling. Avenues are cracking. Trains jump their worn-out tracks. Coal ships languish outside overburdened ports. While the U. S. has the technological prowess to blast a magnificent space shuttle into orbit and land it gently back on earth, it has failed to care properly for its most important public works.

One morning two weeks ago, some New York City commuters living north of Manhattan awoke to a radio traffic bulletin even more dismal than usual. Because of a turbine breakdown at a Conrail power station, their trains into the city would be half an hour behind schedule. Fearing that the delays could be much longer, thousands of travelers took to their cars. But just as rush hour reached its bumper-to-bumper peak, a 4-sq.-ft. section of cement roadbed in the southbound lane of Manhattan's elevated West Side highway suddenly collapsed and tumbled to the ground below. While a repair crew patched the hole with a metal plate traffic backed up for three hours. Said one fatigued driver who reached his office at noon: "It's like Berlin after the war. Nothing works."

Every school-day morning on the Lilly Bridge near Altoona, Pa., children go through a poignant ritual that matches the plight of those commuters. A yellow bus parks just short of the decrepit 57-year-old structure, the doors swing open and its young passengers troop across the bridge on foot. Then the driver follows--slowly--to pick them up again, knowing that even if the bridge gives way under the weight of the bus the children will be safe.

These conditions are neither isolated nor unrelated. Urban planners and a growing number of politicians are worried about the bridges and byways, streets and sewers that make up the infrastructure of the U.S. economy. After decades of neglect by all levels of government much of that foundation is now in an advanced state of decay.

During the lean years of the 1970s many financially strapped states and depressed older cities were hard put to find money either for maintenance or for new construction. With teachers, welfare recipients, garbage collectors and senior citizens all expecting higher salaries or more services, government priorities tipped toward meeting social demands. Since 1965, the percentage of the U.S.'s gross national product devoted to investment in public works has dropped from 3.6% to 1.7%, a 52.8% decline. Like a pensioner gradually spending his lifetime's savings the U.S. is living off its public capital and little by little exhausting it.

This situation is felt most acutely in the declining cities of the Northeast and Midwest, and the old Southern river towns like New Orleans. But tight budgets are also threatening the infrastructure in the West. The effect of California's Proposition 13, which slashed property taxes by an average of 57%, has already shown up in the deteriorating condition of that state's streets and highways.

Ronald Reagan has presented Congress with a program to renew American business by encouraging savings and promoting private investment, but the productivity of business rests on the quality of its infrastructure--its network of roads rails, ports and other vital public services. If trains and trucks are slowed by poor tracks and roads, farmers and manufacturers cannot get their products to market on time, and the delay shows up in the prices of everything from soybeans to stereo sets. If city sewers and subways are already strained beyond their limits companies may be reluctant to expand and hire new workers, since they may not be able to get to work. Warns the Council of State Planning Agencies in a disturbing new report entitled America in Ruins: "The deteriorated condition of basic facilities that underpin the economy will prove a critical bottleneck to national economic renewal during this decade unless we can find ways to finance public works. " The worst infrastructure ills:

Highways. In 1956 Congress launched what President Dwight Eisenhower proclaimed to be "the greatest public works program in history": the interstate highway system. Now in its silver anniversary year, the 42,500-mi. network is only 94% finished, but 8,000 miles of pavement are so badly worn that they must be rebuilt. Though the U.S. Government has picked up 90% of the $79 billion tab for interstate construction so far, it has given the states almost no money for maintenance and state legislatures have been slow to provide funds to keep up the highways. To make matters worse, Congress in 1974 lifted the truck weight limit on federal highways from 73,280 lbs. to a concrete-crushing 80,000 lbs. On part of Interstate 90 near Erie, Pa., motorists bouncing over ripples and dodging chuckholes wisely ignore the posted speed limit of 55 m.p.h. in favor of a more sensible 30 m.p.h.

Secondary roads off the interstates are often in much worse shape. In eastern Kentucky, where pockmarked roads suffer a relentless pounding from overloaded coal trucks, drivers bitterly complain that most of their tires blow out before they wear out. The main road between Baton Rouge and Shreveport, La., is so bumpy that freight haulers avoid it by going some 130 miles out of their way through eastern Texas. Says Trucker John Wooley, a former rodeo cowboy: "That road just tears a rig apart. It's like riding a bucking bronco." In California, Highway 101 outside San Jose is full of holes. Says Jon Carroll, a senior editor at New West magazine: "There are many blood alleys in California, but this one leads the parade. An absolutely terrifying driving experience."

Most states rely upon gasoline taxes for maintenance funds but, as the surging price of fuel has forced people to drive less, those revenues have decreased. In Ohio, for example, state officials predict that their gas tax receipts will be $15 million less this year than in 1980. Meanwhile, the cost of rebuilding a road is 166% higher than it was only a decade ago. Inevitably, repairs are put off. Maine's original 1980 budget called for repaving 1,250 miles of highway; because of inflation and a decline in revenues, only 524 miles were actually restored.

Legislators in many states, including South Dakota, Virginia and Alabama, have recently admitted their problems and hiked gasoline taxes by as much as 4-c- per gal. Other states will surely follow. Says David Finley, of the Ohio department of transportation: "We haven't raised our gas taxes in more than two decades, but we will have to now. The condition of the roads has me very worried."

Bridges. One of every five bridges in the U.S. needs major rehabilitation. Fortunately, those on the brink of breakdown are usually closed to traffic. In Ohio, 605 bridges have been blocked off, but 4,000 others that show ominous signs of deterioration are still in use. More than half of Louisiana's 14,800 bridges do not meet federal and state standards. Some of the nation's worst bridges are also heavily traveled ones. In River Rouge, Mich., the Miller Road Bridge links a huge Ford Motor factory with Interstate 94. A city engineer describes it as "utterly dangerous and in bad need of repair."

The cost of fixing U.S. bridges could run as high as $33 billion, but states and cities can spend just a small fraction of that amount. Federal aid for bridge repairs is only $1.3 billion this year. Admits Daniel Mines, an engineer for the State of Michigan: "Bridges are falling down faster than we can rebuild them."

City Streets, Sewers and Subways. Old age is catching up with many American cities. Cleveland's antiquated sewer system overflows during heavy rains. Says City Budget Director Phillip Allen: "We always have flooded basements throughout Cleveland. It wouldn't be so bad if it were just storm water, but it's combined with sewage water." In St. Louis, about 15% of the water supply leaks out of the city's aged pipes. In Newark, 90% of the streets need patching, resurfacing or complete reconstruction.

New York City is in a class by itself. Last year the metropolis had 547 water-main breaks that cost $60 million to repair. Potholes and other road defects prompted 1,941 property damage claims totaling $20.9 million. The ramshackle subway system is notoriously unreliable. Three weeks ago, a train bound for Manhattan from Queens broke down, stranding 1,500 passengers in a tunnel under the East River for more than an hour. Concerned New York businessmen are banding together to lobby for change. One group called Business for Mass Transit has taken advertisements in the New York Times to deliver a warning to city and state officials: "The impending collapse of our subways, bus lines and commuter railroads threatens our businesses and the jobs of millions of workers."

The cost of reversing this kind of urban decay is too high for many city treasuries. Officials in New Orleans believe that it would take $200 million to repair the city's crumbling streets, but only $32 million is now available for the job. One estimate of the cost of modernizing Baltimore's sewer system comes to $1,880 for every man, woman and child in the city.

With municipal budgets under severe strain, some cities are risking even further deterioration. Since 1973, Buffalo has reduced the number of its water-system workers by more than 40%. In the past two years, Boston has cut its mass-transit engineering and maintenance work force by 16%. Oakland, Calif., has trimmed its street-repair crew by 18%.

Some elected officials have concluded, however, that restoring infrastructure can be good politics. Cleveland Mayor George Voinovich persuaded voters to approve a 25% hike in their income taxes by promising that half of the money would go for capital improvements, including bridge and street repair. New York City now uses about 50% of its capital budget for rehabilitation rather than new construction, compared with just over 20% in 1970. Says Mayor Edward Koch: "Discussion at a city council meeting will not be about what building we're putting up, but whether sewer A will be finished before sewer B. We're not interested in the old political system of show them something on top if what you need is something below ground."

Railroads and Ports. Spending for train and track maintenance and new equipment has more than doubled, from $7.1 billion in 1975 to $14.9 billion last year, and once deplorable conditions are improving. But 6,468 trains were still derailed in 1980. These incidents caused property damages amounting to more than $200 million.

The most serious problems are on branch lines, which are often unprofitable. In many areas of Kansas and Illinois, grain shipments creep along on trains that can safely travel only at 10 m.p.h. Overall, an estimated 30% of total U.S. track mileage needs major repair.

Efforts to rebuild the railroads should be buoyed by the deregulation law passed by Congress last year, which directed the Interstate Commerce Commission to give the railroads more freedom to raise their freight rates. Rail executives hope that they can make many branch lines profitable and restore their tracks and roadbeds. Otherwise, they argue, the lines should simply be abandoned.

The railroads are counting on future profits from a boom in coal transport now that nations around the world are seeking a substitute for high-priced oil. But the U.S. will never fulfill its potential as a coal exporter until action is taken to upgrade and expand its ports.

Hampton Roads, Va., is the nation's busiest coal port and also its most notorious bottleneck. On an average day before the start of the current coal miners' strike, an armada of 150 ships was anchored offshore. Reason: the two loading terminals are so inadequate that the colliers usually must wait in line a month or more to pick up their cargoes.

Coal companies are planning to build new terminals at Hampton Roads and other ports, but a more serious problem will remain. No Eastern or Gulf Coast harbor is deep enough to accommodate so-called supercolliers: giant vessels that can carry more than 125,000 tons of coal, which is at least twice the load of standard ships. Many American ports, including Hampton Roads, Baltimore, New Orleans and Mobile, need to be dredged to the 55-ft. depth required by the supercolliers. But congressional appropriations for these projects have been held up for years, while lawmakers wrangle about which port should be first and worry about the multibillion-dollar price tag.

No one knows how much it would cost to modernize the entire infrastructure of the U.S. economy. Pat Choate, co-author of the America in Ruins study, estimates that the task could take as much as $3 trillion, roughly the amount of the annual gross national product at present. Amitai Etzioni, director of the Center for Policy Research, believes that more than $400 billion should be invested over the next decade on railroads, highways and bridges. The total value of all government-sponsored construction on those projects last year was $23.4 billion.

President Reagan does not intend to launch a major new public works spending program. In fact, as part of his budget-cut plans, he hopes to carve $31 billion out of federal spending on transportation over the next five years. The highway program would lose $11.2 billion, and mass-transit aid would be trimmed by $12 billion. Though Congress is expected to approve a large portion of the Reagan cuts, some lawmakers argue that the reductions are shortsighted. Says Democratic Congressman Henry Reuss of Wisconsin, the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee: "The whole thrust of the Reagan program is to downgrade the infrastructure. What has been a serious worry will now become a disaster."

Administration officials argue in response that the problems can be solved most efficiently by state and local governments. Says Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis: "It's a question of whether we collect a dollar in taxes, skim 15-c- or 20-c- off through our bureaucratic regime in Washington and send 80-c- back to the states, or whether we cut federal taxes and let the states handle it locally."

Moreover, many urban planners are concerned that states and cities have become federal-aid junkies. U.S. Government contributions to state and local public works expenditures have jumped from 10% in 1957 to about 40% now. Concludes George Peterson, a public finance specialist at Washington's Urban Institute: "State and local governments must stop lobbying for more federal assistance and get about the job of setting their own priorities, reassessing their needs and collecting funds at the local level to pay for them."

At a time when taxes are already painfully high, it will not be easy to raise money to rebuild roads, enlarge ports or repair bridges. But neither can the U.S. continue its past policy of "build it and forget it." The longer that needed restoration is postponed, the more costly it becomes. America cannot afford to starve vital parts of its infrastructure--that network of arteries that nourish the heart of the economy.

--By Charles Alexander. Reported by Gisela Bolte/Washington and Denise Worrell/New York with other U.S. bureaus

With reporting by Gisela Bolte, Denise Worrell

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