OPINION: The cost of delay is approaching the size of the nation’s entire infrastructure backlog
Common Good released an update yesterday of its 2015 report “Two Years, Not Ten Years” revealing that the cost of delay in rebuilding America’s infrastructure has grown in five years from about $3.7 trillion to nearly $3.9 trillion. That’s an increase of nearly $200 billion — or $40 billion per year. The overall total includes direct costs associated with construction delays plus economic and environmental costs of failing to upgrade America’s dilapidated infrastructure. The total approaches in magnitude the entire U.S. infrastructure backlog of $4.6 trillion, as estimated by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
“The federal government continues to delay irresponsibly the rebuilding of America’s crumbling infrastructure,” said Philip K. Howard, chair of nonpartisan Common Good. “The cost of that delay now approaches $4 trillion — a stunning amount of waste, even by Washington standards.”
“Two Years, Not Ten Years” proposed a dramatic reduction of red tape so that infrastructure can be approved in two years or less. It is widely cited as the basis for permitting reforms initiated by executive order by the Trump administration, but legislation to cut the red tape permanently is required. Common Good has proposed a three-page legislative fix to streamline permitting by giving officials the authority and the responsibility to move projects forward and by returning the review to its original public-focused intent.
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.