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U.S. Infrastructure Needs a New Approach To repair crumbling roads and bridges and other things, the first task is to make them more efficient by Thomas G. Dunlan, Barron's

March 25, 2016

It’s infrastructure season: Every candidate in America deplores the country’s “crumbling” highways, bridges, railroads, mass transit, electrical grid, drinking-water systems, sewage-treatment plants, waterways, and seaports.

It sometimes sounds like potholes are the only growth sector in the U.S. economy. The American Society of Civil Engineers—representing the men and women who plan, design, and build highways, bridges, tunnels, and other projects—gives U.S. infrastructure a D+. The engineers say we should add $300 billion a year to current state, local, and federal spending, just to get to “mediocre.”