It’s been 56 years since Dwight D. Eisenhower got the country moving with the Interstate Highway System back in 1956. The project was completed 35 years later, and later expanded again and again until it reached a total length of 47,182 miles back in 2010. It is the second longest network of roads in the world and it is falling apart.
The construction done in the 50’s was some amazing work, but we’ve made some pretty serious technological advancement since then. Most of the roads and bridges that were built then remain almost exactly the same now. General maintenance is done less often than it should be, and the highway system.
Now granted, the world is in an economic recession, and even though our country is climbing up out of it, we still have a massive deficit. Repairing roadways may not be the first thing on everyone’s mind. But maybe it should be.
The great American auto companies are back on their feet, factories are re-opening, people are buying more and more, and every economic indicator points to growth, but without safe and effective roads, our economic recovery will be stymied and all the great progress that we can make will come to a grinding halt.
But where will the money come from? Raising fuel taxes would have a catastrophic effect on many industries, trucking not least among them. The cost of tolls on our nation’s highways is already rising to the point of ridiculousness. Currently the money spent on our highways is getting stretched thinner and thinner with the rising cost of labor and materials and just throwing more money into repairs may not be helpful in the long term.
Perhaps it’s time to put to use some of that technological advancement and stop doing things the way we used to 50 years ago. We’re still using asphalt to pave our roads even though since it’s made from fossil fuels the cost has gone up astronomically. What other unnecessary or outdated procedures do we still use? Perhaps the problem is not only lack of funding for repairs, but also lack of funding for innovation.
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Don Dierdorff says
Not to even mention any more truck stops which need to be built as there is no where to park after dark in any major city. The people who are able to do something about it don’t give a rip since they get to go home every night.
George says
Where did the “stimulus money” go?
HeavensAngels says
Well the money is linig the pockets of all the officials who needed more money to live better. Truck stop… I agree. Everyone wants the product on time and want stricter hours of service so give the truck driver places to adhear to those. I’ve seen more places that say no trucks than places they can be.
HeavensAngels says
As for road condition.. well they stink to put it nice. They are in such bad repair there tear trucks up and wear drivers out just truing to control there trucks. Don’t truck drivers have plenty to deal with out there? Like stupid drivers weather etc? We pay enough in taxes tolls fuel tax road tax… shouldn’t they be nice?
JonP says
A great deal of the problem is that, just like the Social Security Trust Fund, the Federal Government is raiding the Highway Trust Fund and using the revenue for other programs that have nothing to do with the purpose of the tax in the first place. Whenever there is a pot of money sitting somewhere the big spenders in Congress can’t keep their hands off of it. The Trillion Dollar Stimulous that was supposed to go to “shovel ready jobs” was used for everything but those jobs and was actually a giant slush fund for Congressional Rainmakers to help get re-elected or fund a giant wish list of projects they could never get passed the Constitutional way. Anyone think that if even 1/2 of that money, about $500 Billion was actually used for the roads then that would not have made and impact on our infrastructure? Tolls were increased on the George Washington Bridge and bring in over $1 Billion a year. Most think they are used to fix the bridge and roads leading to it but they are put into the general fund of the Port Authority to pay for such things as an average Port Authority Employee salary of $143,000/yr
Don Dierdorff says
Grapevine Hill in California is a complete disaster, and nothing gets done about it. What would you expect from mentally ill so-called “representatives” like Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein and Maxine Waters aside from their psychosis?
Another major problem is the San Francisco Bay area, specifically Ripon. You better get there before 3pm on any give day or you won’t find a place to park. Ripon City Counsel doesn’t give a pimple on a dead whore’s ass about how bad the parking problem is, even though the Ripon police department goes around and issues parking tickets to drivers who have no place to park! If drivers don’t unite, NOTHING will be done about it, so PULL YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR BUTTS AND GET ON THEIR NERVES or you will continue to suffer.
Cab London says
These road infrastructures were not built for so many vehicles to be driving on it daily. The same problem is occurring in China at the moment.
DJaxon1 says
This isn’t all true. If you’re a OTR driver you see road construction almost evrywhere.