By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Imagine a future of broken
bridges, roads, sewer systems, power grids, airports and not
enough money to fix them or to build new ones to serve an
expanding population. What would that cost the United States in
terms of lost jobs?
A study released on Tuesday by the American Society of Civil
Engineers says the cost in terms of lost jobs would be 3.5
million by 2020. It also projected a cumulative loss of $3.1
trillion in economic output over the same period without $1.1
trillion in additional funding for infrastructure projects.
"The results show that deteriorating infrastructure, long
known to be a public safety issue, has a cascading impact on the
nation's economy, negatively affecting business productivity,
gross domestic product, employment, personal income and
international competitiveness," the report entitled, "Failure to
Act," said.
The study prepared by the Economic Development Research
Group, a private consulting and analytic firm, estimated the
United States needs to spend $2.75 trillion to maintain and
improve its infrastructure by 2020, or roughly 66 percent more
than the $1.66 trillion in currently expected funding over that
period.
"Overall, if the investment gap is not addressed throughout
the nation's infrastructure sectors by 2020, the economy is
expected to lose almost $1 trillion in business sales, resulting
in a loss of almost 3.5 million jobs.
"Moreover, if current trends are not reversed, the
cumulative cost to the U.S. economy from 2012 to 2020 will be
more than $3.1 trillion in GDP and $1.1 trillion in total
trade," the report said.
The engineers group recommended $157 billion of additional
funding between now and 2020 to meet infrastructure repair and
expansion needs, a substantial request especially at a time when
lawmakers and the Obama administration are considering ways to
slow the growth of U.S. debt.
"Public and private investment and new, innovative
strategies are needed to repair, rebuild and revitalize the
nation's transportation system," Janet Kavinoky, executive
director of transportation and infrastructure for the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement accompanying the
report.
The study projected the biggest funding gap, $877 billion,
for highway and other surface transportation projects needed by
2020. But it also saw funding shortfalls of $629 billion for new
electricity generation and transmission, $95 billion for
airports, $42 billion for water and sewage and $14 billion for
inland waterway and marine ports.
The biggest job losses were seen in retail, construction,
medical, business services and the food and drink industry.
Funding for highway projects depends on the federal gasoline
tax, which has not been raised in 20 years and is seen as an
increasingly ineffective way of raising revenue as automobile
fuel efficiency rises.
The report said deteriorating infrastructure would hurt U.S.
productivity and international competitiveness in various ways,
such as longer travel times and higher costs for water and
energy.
"Goods will be more expensive to produce and more expensive
to transport to retail shelves for households or to business
customers. Business-related travel, as well as commuting and
personal travel, will also become more expensive," the report
said.
The study projected the funding gap for infrastructure
projects to swell to $4.7 trillion by 2040, resulting in nearly
7 million lost jobs.
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