Oh Goody, a D Plus!
By Fawn Johnson
Correspondent, National Journal
The American Society of Civil Engineers releases a report card every four years grading America's infrastructure. In march of 2013, it was released again, but showing a GPA of "D plus" for the current state of the Nation's infrastructure. According to Fawn Johnson, "there is some mild good news" since it appears to be a slight improvement compared to the grades from 2009 and 2005 which were a steady " D" at that time. Johnson also states that in order "to get an A under ASCE's framework, the utility under its inspection needs to be "exceptional". Which has never occurred and the best overall grade has been a C in 1988. Still ASCE's made clear that the way of grading 15 years ago was different from today. However a good notice seems to be the increment in the recycling rate which doubled since 1980.
According to Johnson article's, these mediocre grades have something good after all because it shows the necessity of keep pushing to invest more fixing or building infrastructure. That message got to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jhon Rockefeller who used the report to create a fund and the Transportation Department also used the report to propose an increase in the Federal gas tax collection.
Fawn Johnson is a correspondent of National Journal and in this professional blog she gave us some facts and background about Americas previous grades in infrastructure. I disagree with the mediocre grades given by the ASCE's, being severe and exaggerated but at the same time I can understand them as a way to push for a better infrastructure which would be nice. The main idea of Johnson's blog is the D plus grade received for 2013 report card and ho it slightly improved from the previous one. As a future civil engineer I can't deny that the roads, bridges and tunnels that we use every day are the arteries of our cities and with a better infrastructure comes a better economy and more peace for our citizens.
Fawn Johnson is a correspondent of National Journal and in this professional blog she gave us some facts and background about Americas previous grades in infrastructure. I disagree with the mediocre grades given by the ASCE's, being severe and exaggerated but at the same time I can understand them as a way to push for a better infrastructure which would be nice. The main idea of Johnson's blog is the D plus grade received for 2013 report card and ho it slightly improved from the previous one. As a future civil engineer I can't deny that the roads, bridges and tunnels that we use every day are the arteries of our cities and with a better infrastructure comes a better economy and more peace for our citizens.
Refferences:
Johnson, Fawn, "Oh Goody, a D Plus!. National Journal. Published March 25, 2013. http://transportation.nationaljournal.com/2013/03/oh-goody-a-d-plus.php. Accessed on April 29, 2013.
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