Oregon Infrastructure Report Card

The American Society of Civil Engineers does an Infrastructure Report Card every five years, including a State by State breakdown.  They give letter grades on the condition of the infrastructure and how well we are maintaining it.  The overall national grade is a fairly depressing D+.  The Oregon grade is C-, pretty much in line with the nation. 

US Rep Peter Defazio (OR-D) reacted to the report in a press release stating
“Over the next seven years, we have a projected deficit of about $1.6 trillion in our infrastructure system if nothing changes. That’s as much money as the unnecessary war in Iraq cost us. According to ASCE, if we don’t address this investment gap in our infrastructure, by 2020 our economy will lose $1 trillion in business sales, $3.1 trillion in Gross Domestic Product, and 3.5 million jobs will be lost. If we want to maintain economic growth and international competitiveness, we are going to have to do a lot better than a near-failing ‘D+’,” .

DeFazio’s floor speech can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqnIvLGNhtc
The Oregon report noted a few alarming things.

• 433 of the 7,633 bridges in Oregon (5.7%) are considered structurally deficient.
• 1,341 of the 7,633 bridges in Oregon (17.6%) are considered functionally obsolete.
• Driving on roads in need of repair costs Oregon motorists $495 million a year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs – $173 per motorist.
• 65% of Oregon’s roads are in poor or mediocre condition.