Pub. 1 2018-2019 Issue 3

14 INFRAST M aintaining or improving infra- structure is not the sort of project thatmakes any politician happy as a campaign issue. Politicians are no more likely to wow supporters by talking about putting money into infrastructure than they are to talk at length about why taxes need to go up. At the same time, however, that doesn’t make it any less important, and when it has been ignored long enough, it also becomes urgent. The current need to improve infrastruc- turewithin the U.S. is exactly that: urgent. The American Society of Civil Engineers has taken to grading U.S. infrastructure on a regular basis. In 2013, the U.S. got a cumulative grade of D+ for its infrastruc- ture, and four years later it got the same grade again. How did Utah do? Compared with the national grade, Utahwas given a grade of C+. Population density in Utah is increas- ing, federal funding is decreasing, and the experts think it will be necessary to spend more than $60 billion on maintenance and on new infrastructure during the next 20 years. • Utah did best with its bridges (B+), dams (B-), roads (B+), solid waste (B-) and transit (B+). • Utah did worse with drinking water (C), hazardous waste (C+), and waste and stormwater (C+). • The worst grades were reserved for canals (D+) and levees (D-). In 2015, the grade for bridges went up to a B+. The other grades stayed the same. If you consider the areas where Utah performed the best, it’s easy to see that even Utah’s best efforts will need to be improved, never mind the areas that fell short. (For more information about the 2015 Utah Infrastructure Report Card, go towww.infrastructurereportcard.org/ state-item/utah.) • There are more than 2,900 highway bridges in Utah. UDOT maintains most of them, and local jurisdictionsmaintain the rest. Only 2.9 percent are structur- ally deficient, but almost a third of the bridges will have been in place for 50 years by the end of the current decade …which is also the end of their design life. UDOT builds 34 new bridges and rehabilitates 8 existing bridges every year, but that means there is a short- fall of between 10 and 20 bridges each year. Every 10 years, another 300 bridges reach the end of their design life. • All of the state’s 9900+dams have emer- gency plans in place and most are in satisfactory or fair condition. There are approximately 106 that haven’t been ratedor that need rehabilitation inorder to meet current standards. As Utah’s cities grow and the state’s dams age, low-risk dams are becoming high-risk dams with ever-increasing demands on the water they contain. Seismic risks add another complication, especially as people build in flood-path areas. • Utahhas generally takengood care of its roads, but most are more than 50 years old. Even though Utah has added lane miles since 1990, the number