Inside America's crumbling infrastructure
美国摇摇欲坠的基础设施
The country's aging roads and bridgesbadly need repair or replacement. But are we willing to pay the cost?
[ 转自铁血社区 http://bbs.tiexue.net/ ]国内逐渐老化的公路及桥梁到了必须维修或换新的时候了。但我们是否愿意为此付出代价？
By The Week Staff | August 22, 2014
What's the problem?America once had the best road andtransportation system in the world, but nothing lasts forever. Last May, theI-5 bridge near Seattle buckled when an overloaded tractor trailer grazed anoverhead girder, sending two cars plummeting into the river below. In 2007, astretch of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed during rush hour, killing13, injuring 145, and resulting in repairs costing $234 million. In 2009, the80-year-old Champlain Bridge between upstate New York and Vermont was shut downwith just 10 minutes' warning after an underwater inspection revealed severestructural weaknesses. Throughout the country, many urban roads and highwaysbuilt decades ago now carry five to 10 times the traffic the original engineersexpected and require constant emergency repair — creating horribletraffic jams. Water and gas pipelines laid in the first half of the 20thcentury are failing, leading to explosions and floods. "Some of thisinfrastructure is more than 100 years old," said Rick Grant, owner of aMaryland structural engineering firm, "butit wasn't designed with more than a 50-year life span in mind."
出了什么问题？
美国曾有世界上最好的道路交通系统，但没有什么是永恒的。今年5月，西雅图附近的一座i-5号桥被途径的一辆重型大挂卡车压塌，导致两辆汽车双双坠入河中。2007年，明尼阿波利斯的一I-35W高架桥在交通高峰期（突然）崩塌，致使35人遇难，145人受伤，事故引起的修复费用高达2.34亿美元。2009年，联接纽约和佛蒙特州之间的80岁“高龄”的尚普兰桥，因在检查该桥水下部分时发现严重的结构性问题，被迫关闭了10多分钟。纵览全国，许多几十年前建的城市道路和高速公路，如今承担着超过原有设计的5到10倍的运输量，造成极为严重的交通堵塞，急需修缮。上世纪中叶铺设的自来水和天然气管道因老化导致爆炸和水患。“有些基础设施都用了有超过100多年了”，马里兰建筑工程公司老板，瑞克格兰特说道，“事实上，这些设施设计使用寿命都不会超过50年”
[ 转自铁血社区 http://bbs.tiexue.net/ ]Are the roads and bridges safe?Every four years, the American Society ofCivil Engineers (ASCE) releases a comprehensive assessment of U.S.infrastructure. Its most recent report card, from 2013, had an overall grade ofD+. Catastrophic events remain rare, but the nation's 607,380 bridges have anaverage age of 42 years, and one in nine is rated structurally deficient. Amongthem are the Storrow Drive Bridge in Boston, which has cementpavement too thick for its corroding steel beam structure to support,and the U.S. Route 1/9 Bridge over the Passaic River in New Jersey, which isrusted out. They and dozens of other deficient bridges still carry heavytraffic daily. Despite a recent uptick in government spending to $91 billionannually, the Federal Highway Administration estimates this amount needs to bedoubled. "It's a no-brainer," said Jeffrey Zients, director of theNational Economic Council. "If we don't act, we could lose our competitiveedge in infrastructure."
公路和大桥还安全么？
每隔四年，美国土木工程师学会（ASCE）就会发布美国基础设施综合评测报告。最近的报告是在2013年发布的，整体评测结果为D+。虽然灾难性的事件不算多，但全国607380座桥梁平均年龄为42岁，每九座桥就有一座被评为有结构性缺陷。其中，波士顿斯托罗街大桥，对于已被腐蚀的钢架支撑结构，上面覆盖着的厚厚水泥路面有些太重了。在新泽西，1/9的跨帕塞伊克河桥，均已锈迹斑斑。他们和其他几十条带有缺陷的桥梁每天仍承担着繁重的运输任务。尽管每年政府的（维修）费用上升至910亿美元，但美国联邦公路管理局估计，这个数字还得翻番。“毫无疑问”，国家经济委员会主任杰夫瑞卓恩特说。“如果我们再不采取行动，我们可能会因基础设施而丢掉我们的竞争优势。”
How did things get so bad?Time and neglect. The U.S. built much ofits vast network of highways and roads beginning in the late 1950s, whenPresident Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act into law to linkrural and urban areas and spur economic growth. For most of the subsequent 40years, government spending on highway construction and maintenance was seen asan important investment and averaged well above 2 percent of gross domesticspending. In 2012, it fell to a 20-year low of 1.5 percent. By comparison,China spends 7 percent of its GDP on infrastructure and India spends 5 percent.As a result, U.S. infrastructure now ranks 14th globally. "When you lookat politicians and Congress," said former ASCE president Andrew Herrmann,"they're not really looking to the future; they're looking to getre-elected."
到底有多糟糕？
时机与疏忽，美国庞大的道路交通网大都始建于上世纪50年带中期，当时美国总统德怀特艾森豪威尔为连接城乡地区、刺激经济增长，签署了联邦资助公路法案。在其后的40年，政府对公路建设和维护的支出被视为一项重要投资，且平均投资额一度超过了国民消费总值的2%。在2012年，跌至1.5%，达到了20年来的最低点。相比之下，中国对基础设施的投入占到GDP的7%，印度则为5%。因此，现在美国的基础设施，在全球排名第十四。“看看那些政客和国会吧，”前美国土木工程学会主席安得烈赫尔曼说，“他们从未真正关心未来；他们眼中只有选票。”
[ 转自铁血社区 http://bbs.tiexue.net/ ]Where will the money come from?The majority of spending on municipaltransportation projects comes from state and local governments and the federalHighway Trust Fund. The HTF contributes from $40 billion to $50 billion a yearto construction projects and is funded by a gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon, arate that has not increased since 1993. Raising the gas tax is "the mostviable, responsible, and effective near-term solution," said AAA'sKathleen Bower. But ever since 1995, when conservative lobbyistGrover Norquist persuaded Republicans to pledge to never raise taxes, Congresshas refused to increase the gas tax. "It's not that they don't likeroads," said President Obama of his GOP counterparts. "They justdon't want to pay for it." Obama has put forth a plan to raise someprivate capital for infrastructure investments, but that is seen as ashort-term solution. "None of the steps we are taking should be seen asa substitute for adequate public financing," said Transportation SecretaryAnthony Foxx. "There is no substitute for that."
钱从何来？
大多数市政交通项目资金来源于州和地方政府以及联邦公路信托基金。公路信托基金投进的建设资金，每年在4百亿美元到5百亿之间不等，该资金来自18.4美分/加仑的燃油税，而且自1993年以来就没涨过。提高燃油税是“最可行的，负责的，立见成效的解决方案“，美国会计协会的凯思琳鲍尔说。但可能是在1995年后，保守党说客格罗弗诺利斯特说服共和党立誓不再提高税额，（所以）国会由此拒绝提高燃油税。“这并不是说他们不喜欢公路，”他的共和党对头，奥巴马总统说。“他们只是不想为此掏钱而已。”奥巴马提出了一个筹集私人资本投资基础设施的计划，但这似乎只能解决燃眉之急。“我们所采取大众融资的方式不太适合做替代解决，（不是长久之计）”交通部长安东尼福克斯说。”没有什么能取代得了。”
How big are the challenges?They are massive, because the publicinfrastructure serving the needs of 316 million people is so large andexpensive to maintain, and it encompasses so many different services andutilities. It includes roads, bridges, mass transit systems, waste- and drinking-watermanagement, levees, dams, ports, electrical grids, and broadband communicationsystems. And it is all interwoven into a complex web, so that failure in onearea can have a cascading effect across the grid. For example, power outagesduring Superstorm Sandy shut down several water treatment facilities, which ledto the release of roughly 11 billion gallons of raw sewage into East Coastwaterways. "What we really need is some innovative thinking aboutfinancing," said Department of Energy senior scientist Tom Wilbanks."It's kind of a national crisis."
面临的挑战究竟有多大？
相当巨大，因为3.16亿人对公共设施服务的需求相当巨大、且维护费用高昂，它包含多种多样的服务和公用设施。既，诸如道路，桥梁，公共运输系统，污水和饮用水管理，防洪堤，大坝，港口，电力网，宽带通信等。所有这一切相互交织成一个复杂网络系统，因此，一旦在某个领域出了问题，就会在整个网络系统产生连锁反应。例如，由桑迪飓风引起断电期间，几家水处理设备因此关闭，最终导致大约110亿加仑的污水涌入东海岸水域。“我们真正需要的是某种关于融资的新思路，”能源部资深科学家汤姆威尔班克斯说。”这都快成国家危机了。”
[ 转自铁血社区 http://bbs.tiexue.net/ ]Putting Band-Aidson ancient pipesWhile the majority of America's roads andbridges were built in the 1950s, many of our water systems date to the early1900s or even to the 19th century. Cities across the country are starting tosee them fall apart. In late July, a 93-year-old water main burst beneathSunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, sending up to 10 million gallons of drinkingwater gushing into the streets. Residents of Baltimore contend with roughly1,000 bursting pipes every year. In Houston, more than a quarter of the city'swater supply is either lost or unaccounted for because of underground leaks.Every year, there are 240,000 water main breaks in the U.S., and inadequate sewagesystems let up to 850 billion gallons of untreated waste water flow into riversand lakes. Yet despite the growing crisis, the U.S. still relies on "theBand-Aid approach," said Harvey Gobas, co-author of a report onCalifornia's water system. "You fix it, it lasts a few more years, but you still don't have a new pipe."
缝缝补补的旧管线
虽然美国的公路和桥梁大部分建于上世纪50年代，可我们很多水系统是在20世纪初，甚至是19世纪建造的。在国内各地市里眼见它们破败下去。七月下旬，洛杉矶，日落大道地下的一条93年“高龄“的主水管发生爆裂，千万加仑的自来水喷到大街上。在巴尔的摩，那里居民每年被约1千条管道爆裂（问题）所苦苦折磨。在休斯敦，超过四分之一的城市供水，因地下泄漏，要么浪费要么不知所踪。每年，在美国发生有24万起主水管道爆裂事件，而且由于污水处理能力的不足，致使8500亿加仑未经处理的污水流进河流湖泊中。然而，尽管问题越来越严重，美国仍秉持着“缝缝补补的策略”。加利福尼亚的水系统报告作者，哈维戈巴斯说。”你（暂时）修好它，虽勉强能挺几年，但旧管道终归不如新的。”
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