The Infrastructure Gamble: Repair Provisions in MAP‐21

Abstract

More than 69,000 bridges are structurally deficient across the United States, and more than half the nation’s roads are not in good condition. The largest 102 metropolitan areas are home to a greater number of structurally deficient bridges than there are McDonald’s restaurants in the entire country—18,239 versus about 14,000—and close to four times as many people travel over those bridges each day than eat at McDonald’s worldwide. But despite increasing amounts of federal transportation spending, the maintenance backlog has grown over the last decade. Aging infrastructure certainly accounts for a portion of this repair need, but part of the massive backlog is a result of spending patterns that have not strategically taken care of existing roads and bridges before building new ones.