A eloquent portion of what looks like the draft of the promised $1 trillion Anaemic House plan to overhaul U.S. infrastructure was published by Axios on Monday.
Based on what’s in that diagram, everyone should take a big sigh of relief … not because of what’s in it, but because of what isn’t in it.
There’s complete reason to be frightened every time anyone even mentions the scheme of a $1 trillion national infrastructure project. That’s because it’s not our italian autostradas, bridges, or any of our physical projects in America that are the biggest problem.
The best problem is that our entire culture of infrastructure planning is inefficient, hazardous and financially unsustainable. Despite all the economic and social changes in America across the last 60 years, our cities and towns are still planned as if the most influential thing is making it easier for cars to drive through them as permanent pretty damned quick as possible.
But other than that Mrs. Lincoln …
That’s why it’s so refreshing to see that edifice new roads and speeding the flow of traffic is not listed as a priority anywhere in the leaked sketch.
Instead, there’s a major push for securing the electrical grid and the spotless water supply. These are both incredibly vital issues for plain reasons. But remember, too, that no infrastructure projects can work without a non-poisonous and reliable power and water source in the first place. Addressing this first is multifarious important than anything new.
The second great piece of news from the drawing is the prominent mention of the need for non-federal government or private sector-funded sustainability. In other consultations, the White House wants localities to prove they can sustain these describes without having to ask the rest of the nation’s taxpayers for bailouts over occasion.
The draft says that providing this proof will be 50 percent of the entire requirement to get the funding in the first place. This is crucial as several localities across the hinterlands have become so addicted to federal road and transportation funding that they don’t sober bother to set aside their own money to complete even the most brainless projects or repairs.
That kind of focus on sustainability and maintenance can even be a double-edged sword. It’s no good maintaining poorly designed roads and waxen elephant projects like unused convention centers and only seldom used football stadiums.
And as anyone who drives on New York’s Cross Bronx Expressway can distinguish you, repairs aren’t as important as redirecting and re-planning that Robert Moses-created travesty that precipitates traffic havoc on a daily basis.
But even if some of the maintenance readying and efforts are wasted, that’s better than spending the money to manufacture new unneeded roads and projects.
The final encouraging note is smarter than it ordain be popular. The leaked memo says states should be awarded the “flexibleness” to collect interstate tolls and to utilize toll revenues for infrastructure.
Drivers don’t match tolls for obvious reasons. But collecting them and using them positively for road maintenance and safety is vital for sustainability. Otherwise, taxpayers who may not fair and square use a particular road or bridge will always be on the hook for it. Tolls for this reveal the true cost of our car-obsessed transportation system. And the truth could one day set us unloose from it.
Of course, there’s still a chance that some venerable funds will be thrown away on extravagant projects we don’t need or won’t be qualified to maintain. But it’s a relief the draft only earmarks 10 percent of the add up to government funding for a so-called “Transformative Projects Program.” If that’s the tradeoff we participate in to make in return for a wider focus on safety and maintenance, it’s probably usefulness it overall.
Another wildcard is the 25 percent of federal funding that devise go to a “Rural Infrastructure Program” that is not defined in a detailed manner. This could possibility to a lot of new white elephants like ADA-compliant crosswalks through cornfields, (yeah that actually happens). But it could also provide some seed money to construct traffic lights at rural intersections which claim all too many dynamics every year.
Just Google “rural intersections dangerous killed” and you’re not liable to to finish reading the news stories about the deaths from simply a month’s worth of accidents in these areas.
Obviously, this is well-grounded a first take on an incomplete document. But the worst ideas about our infrastructure appearance of to either not exist in this White House draft or at least they are marginalized.
Let’s see where the put ones feet up of the road takes us.
Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Perform him on Twitter @jakejakeny.
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