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To tackle failing U.S. infrastructure requires an 'Arsenal of Recovery'

Long-term infrastructure recovery plan requires investment into skilled workers

Worker holding up a wrench

U.S. infrastructure is failing, and the problem isn’t new, nor is it going away. Josh Welton argues that the time is now for a multifaceted, long-term recovery plan that invests in infrastructure, and by extension skilled workers. Getty Images

This isn’t a new problem. It’s been written about, campaigned on, debated, lamented, and dissected. For an issue that requires a proactive approach, our country’s government continues to be reactive at best. Mostly it’s just reflective, like “Look at these bridges falling apart; someone should do something about that!” or “Oh no, we’ve been supplying a city with contaminated water and all the kids are sick!”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic we had a major, dangerous issue affecting the lives of nearly every citizen: America’s failing infrastructure. It was already a top-of-the-bulletin-board problem costing over $3,000 a year per household in lost wages, higher cost of living, wasted resources, and lost time. Now, in our current climate, it has the potential to—no pun intended—derail any economic recovery. Actually, the railroad system is the only one of the 16 sectors tracked by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) that scored above a C+ in its most recent report card. And even so, portions of the railways are more than 110 years old and way behind on maintenance and repairs.

The ASCE releases a report card every four years grading infrastructure in the U.S. Every four years the average grade is a D. Every four years the money lost goes up, the cost to fix the problems goes up, the toll on humans goes up. It doesn’t matter who is in office or what party controls Congress; we haven’t seen either side suggest any long-term solutions. None of them truly care because there is no quick fix. When they do act, it’s a short-sighted Band-Aid so they can tell their constituents that they did something about it while they were in office.

This isn’t theoretical; the problems are real. I don’t have to leave my half of the state of Michigan to see the absolute failure of our infrastructure. Lost in the news of the pandemic was a duo of dams in the middle of Michigan that collapsed in May, displacing 10,000 residents and flooding entire towns. According to the most recent ASCE report on Michigan, 271 dams were built in the 19th century. Like, before 1900. As in Nikola Tesla was just inventing the alternating current motor and transformer. Before oxyacetylene welding was invented. Overall, two-thirds of the state’s 2,600 dams have exceeded their service life.

One of my cars was put out of service because of the infamously terrible roads here in southeastern Michigan. One morning a piece of concrete on Detroit’s Mound Road kicked up and broke the coupling to the intercooler. Eventually the route just rattled the car apart. In a state that already has the highest cost to operate a vehicle by far, we also have to budget for bent wheels, blown tires, and excessive wear and tear. Public transportation in metro Detroit is a joke, so when major emergency repair jobs are necessary, like right now, poorly laid-out detours on the already overstressed roads essentially become parking lots for commuters.

Earlier this year a chunk of concrete from a bridge outside of Lansing fell onto a car, hitting the driver. That same bridge was rated in fair condition in 2018. More than 10% of the state’s bridges fall in the poor to failing category. Many bridges around Detroit have temporary supports to keep their crumbling onto the freeway to a minimum.

Then 50 miles north we have the situation that turned the city of Flint into an international touchstone. The cash-strapped city’s state-appointed emergency manager decided to stop piping in water from Detroit and instead used its old system of lead pipes to tap into an already contaminated Flint River. That, along with the lack of treatment and testing, directly led to the poisoning of Flint’s population, killing some and causing health issues for others that will plague them for life. The infrastructure was so bad that bottled water was the immediate solution, and still is in some instances. Not completely unrelated is the fact that our nation overall loses 2 trillion (yes, trillion) gallons of treated water from leaks in the delivery system that is, in many places, decades past its service life.

These aren’t abstract problems. They’re all real situations that affect my family, my friends, and me directly. Our state’s Democratic governor ran on the catchphrase of “Fix the damn roads,” yet bipartisan bickering has stalled permanent solutions. Our country’s Republican president proposed a major $1 trillion national infrastructure plan as he campaigned, but failed to pass it despite controlling the House and the Senate, and two years later admitted he hated it and is trying again. Both sides have tried to work out creative ways to finance the initiatives, and both sides have failed.

The pandemic has laid waste to a national economy whose middle class was already disappearing, and we’re now facing the highest unemployment rate since, well, ever. Isn’t now the time to put Americans to work rebuilding our country? I hesitate to say, “like the New Deal,” because instantly people will retreat into their corners to toe their party’s line. But this is the time for action, this is the time for a major investment from our government. We have an available workforce in need of well-paying jobs who have the potential to help fix our country on multiple fronts right now.

Failing infrastructure isn’t a temporary problem, so we can’t implement a temporary solution. If we can come up with trillions of dollars for a one-time stimulus package, how can we fail to fund a multifaceted, long-term recovery plan? Skilled labor would be a huge part of it, and rather than adding more money to unemployment checks, we could be subsidizing trade schools and accelerated apprenticeship programs. We could incentivize construction businesses to finally pay wages at a level that would break through four decades of stagnation.

The power grid, public transportation, roads, water treatment and delivery, school maintenance, dam and levy reinforcements, waste disposal, bridge reconstruction, all need significant work. Millwrights, electricians, ironworkers, HVAC technicians, machinists, boilermakers, pipefitters, welders, and other skilled trades will be needed in the millions to complete the work. World War II put Americans struggling to move out of the Great Depression to work as the Arsenal of Democracy, and right now we are at a critical junction in a war with the atrophy of our nation’s infrastructure at a time when tens of millions of us have no job, no health care, and no hope. We need to become the Arsenal of Recovery. We need to rebuild the middle class. We need to rebuild America.

About the Author
Brown Dog Welding

Josh Welton

Owner, Brown Dog Welding

(586) 258-8255