Once every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) releases a report card on the state of US infrastructure. Earlier this month, it handed down a second consecutive D+ (an improvement from its D eight years ago). This doesn’t mean bridges and dams are headed for mass collapse — grades are based on eight factors, including resilience, future needs, and innovation. The ASCE says we could get a B by 2025 with smart spending, political will, and planning.
> 36,423 — Miles of public roads in the state, of which 16 percent are considered to be in poor condition
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> $539 — Average annual repair costs to motorists from driving on bad Massachusetts roads
> $112 billion — Amount Americans spent in 2014 on extra car repairs from driving on poor roads
> 9.3% — Percent of Massachusetts’s 5,171 bridges that are structurally deficient, vs. 9.1 percent nationally
> 32 — Number of Massachusetts sites on the National Priorities List for addressing hazardous waste issues
> 36th — Massachusetts’s rank among US states for renewable energy output
> 3% — Percent of energy needs at Logan Airport supplied by its 20 wind turbines
> $1.4 billion — Gap in estimated annual spending on Massachusetts school facilities vs. their needs; the gap for the entire country is $38 billion
> $8.35 billion — Estimated Massachusetts 20-year capital investment needs for waste water to meet quality objectives of the Clean Water Act
> $1.2 billion — Estimated spending over 20 years for drinking water that meets the Clean Water Act’s objectives
> $17.8 billion — Estimated additional costs to maintain Massachusetts’s entire water infrastructure in the next 20 years, with about half needed for waste water treatment
Sources: American Society of Civil Engineers; Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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