Joe Biden wants to spend $53 Billion on a high-speed rail initiative.  Not only do we not have the money but if we did there are more important ways to spend it.  Much of the infrastructure we depend on in large cities is over 100 years old.  When the great migration to the suburbs began after World War II we built water lines, sewage treatment plants and roads, including the Interstate Highway System.  The 50 year anticipated lifespan of hese facilities is ending. 

The more spectacular failures garner headlines.  The Minneapolis bridge collapse and the explosion of a 100 year old steam pipe made the news in 2007.  In 2003 the Silver Lake Dam in Michigan failed causing $100 Million in damage.  In 1987 a bridge on the New York State Thruway collapsed, killing 10 people and closing part of the highway for months.  The Northeast Power Grid failed in the hot August of 2003. Most famous is the failure of the levees during Hurricane Katrina.  Administrators in older cities like New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and Los Angeles face these problems frequently.  City water main breaks are commonplace. 

The Federal Government has determined that 160,000 bridges across the country, 27% of the total 600,000, are “Structurally deficient or funtionally obsolete”.  They estimate it would cost $9 Billion a year for 20 years to fix or replace them.  In 2006 federal, state and local governments spent $112 Billion building and repairing roads.  The Congressional Budget Office says wastewater treatment failities are underfunded by $23-37 Billion a year.  The Amerian Society of Civil Engineers says our drinking water infrastructure is underfunded by $11 Billion a year.  Their infrastructure “report card” gave dams and drinking water a D, roads and navigable waterways a D-.  They say 50% of our inland waterway locks are “functionally obsolete” and would ost $125 Billion to replace.  They say Americans spend 3.5 billion hours a year stuck in traffic at a cost of $63.2 Billion in lost productivity a year. 

Joe should stick with the slow train back to Delaware for a few more years.  Funding repairs to what we use every day is far more important.