By: centraljersey.com
New Jersey’s infrastructure is in disrepair.
The American Society of Civil Engineers, in its most recent report, found that a third of the state’s bridges were "structurally deficient or functionally obsolete," and our roads were crumbling and costing motorists more than $3 billion a year in extra repair costs.
Newark Liberty Airport and the state’s smaller commercial airports are overburdened, and our drinking water systems are aging and in need of replacement as is the state’s sewage treatment facilities.
Overall, ASCE issued grades ranging from D to C-plus to the state, though most of the grades fell on the lower end of the grading scale.
And yet, the governor and state Legislature remain locked in a battle over how to pay for the needed upgrades. Gov. Jon Corzine, rather than address the issue head on, refinanced transportation debt to prolong the life of the state Transportation Trust Fund, which did nothing more than push the problem down the road.
His replacement, Gov. Chris Christie, is threatening to shut down the fund and stall all state infrastructure projects because of a lack of money – even as he attempts to divert funding from the Access to the Region’s Core project (the proposed rail tunnel into New York that was halted last month).
The Legislature – led by Democrats – has balked, and the stalemate threatens to drag on, keeping thousands of construction workers from working and delaying needed upgrades.
It would be easy to blame this on the state’s dysfunctional political culture, but New Jersey is not alone. The decay of our infrastructure is a national problem and demands both national and state-level solutions.
A bipartisan report produced at the University of Virginia and issued Monday said that the nation’s transportation systems – "the backbone of America" and our economy – are in decline due to the lack of a "coherent vision for our transportation future" and unwillingness to fund upgrades and modernization.
"This shortsightedness and underinvestment – at the planning level and on our nation’s roads, rails, airports and waterways – costs the country dearly," the report says. "It compromises our productivity and ability to compete internationally; transportation users pay for the system’s inefficiencies in lost time, money and safety. Rural areas are cut off from economic opportunities, and even urbanites suffer from inadequate public transportation options. Meanwhile, transportation-related pollution exacts a heavy toll on our environment and public health."
The problem is real, and fixing it is going to be expensive. But spending on infrastructure – in repairing roads, schools and bridges, expanding access to rail and other mass-transit, modernizing the power grid and expanding use of alternative fuels, providing broadband access, cleaning polluted waterways and building water-filtration plants to ensure access to clean drinking water – is the kind of investment that will pay off in more ways than we can count.
It will create jobs in the short run while making us more efficient in the long run. It will move us from older, dirtier fuels to a cleaner future, make us more competitive economically and allow us to leave a clean and prosperous country to our children and grandchildren.

