July 24, 2019 – According to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, commerce in America suffers as a result of poorly maintained infrastructure, and the costs are often passed down to American consumers. A study the American Society of Civil Engineers suggests that infrastructure deficiencies are estimated to cost American households $3,400 in disposable income this year, and by 2025 will cost the economy $4 trillion in GDP and a loss of 2.5 million jobs. And it isn’t just our roads, bridges and airports that are hurting commerce. Our nation’s waterways and harbors represent some of the most cost-effective, fuel-efficient, and safe modes of freight transport domestically, yet outdated infrastructure threatens to undermine the benefits they provide due to frequent delays and inefficiencies. Too many of our nation’s locks and dams are obsolete, and insufficient maintenance has increased unplanned stoppages by 700% over the last decade. In 2017, a study performed by the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Tennessee concluded that unscheduled, extended outages at just four of the locks that they studied would create billions of dollars of harm to shippers and other areas of the economy that their activity supports. Without increased investment in our waterways, our economy will take a hit. These are real issues that American families and businesses face every day, and our elected officials should tackle them head on with a bold new vision for how to modernize and rebuild our infrastructure.
A Hit to American Households
