I started thinking about the different work
programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps, CCC, or the Works Progress
Administration, WPA, that were formed during the Great Depression as part of
FDR’s New Deal programs, and then remembered watching a CBS 60 Minutes program
called “Falling Apart – America’s Neglected Infrastructure” that ran on
November 23rd and was reported by Steve Kroft. Here is the link to that
video:
The show talks a lot about how bad our roads
and bridges are today and how no one in our Government seems to be willing to
do anything about it. So I thought it
was too bad that there isn’t some program like the CCC today that could help
out.
The CCC was formed
in March 1933 as one of the New Deal’s first programs. At that time, there was
still a lot of undeveloped land or National Parks, especially out West, that
needed work. The CCC operated from 1933
to 1942. The driving force behind forming
the CCC was the very high unemployment rate, especially among younger men due
to the Depression. It put these people to work on projects like soil
conservation; building roads, bridges, state parks, dams; laying telephone
lines, building fire observation towers etc . FDR really liked the idea of the CCC because it combined his interests
in conservation with his belief in public service for young people. He believed
that this civilian “tree army” would relieve the rural unemployed and keep
youth “off the city street corners.” The
average CCC boy enlisted when he was 18-1/2 years old and stayed in for 9
months, gained 12-30 pounds in weight and a half-inch in height. He typically
had finished the 8th grade, had no job before joining the CCC and had three to
four family members dependent upon him. Sixty percent were from small towns or
farms. The maximum enrollment at any one time was 300,000. In nine years, 3
million young men participated in the CCC, which provided them with shelter,
clothing, and food, together with a small wage of $30 a month ($25 of which had
to be sent home to their families). Sadly, despite a nondiscrimination policy,
the CCC failed to give a fair share of work to blacks, especially in the South.
Still, in spite of rigid segregation and hiring quotas, black participation
reached 10 percent by 1936. Despite its popular support, the
CCC was never a permanent agency. It depended on emergency and temporary
Congressional legislation for its existence. By 1942, with World War II
and the draft in operation, the need for work relief declined and Congress voted
to close the program.
During its existence the CCC built 46,854
bridges, 3,116 fire-lookout towers, more that 448 million feet of fencing,
318,076 dams for erosion control, and 33,087 miles of terracing. The CCC built
more than 800 parks and planted nearly 3 billion trees nationwide. The CCC fought forest fires,
planted trees and grass, dug canals and ditches, laid pipe, improved wildlife
habitat and build and took care of thousands of miles of hiking trails. Many
things built by the CCC are still in use today.
It would be interesting to see if some of the
bridges that the CCC built are some of the ones talked about in Steve Kroft’s
60 Minutes Report or the other two reports I found on line and quote below:
from: Gary Stoller, USA TODAY; July 29, 2013:
Obama tried to help improve America’s roads
and bridges with his Recovery Act passed in 2009 during the “Great Recession.” However,
Tony Dorsey, a spokesman for AASHTO, which represents state highway and
transportation departments said, "Considering the size of the overall
investment needed, the Recovery Act was more of a temporary relief than a
long-term solution."
According to this article, “State, federal
and local funding levels for road and bridge improvements are not adequate to
meet the nation's growing needs. About $85 billion is required annually to
improve the condition of roads and bridges — nearly double what was spent in
2008, according to the Department of Transportation's 2010 report to Congress.”
AMERICA'S CRUMBLING ROADWAYS
More
of the nation's roads had pavement in poor condition in 2011 than in 2008,
despite an influx of stimulus money to improve roadways. And across the
country, 11% of the bridges were found to be structurally deficient. I thought this chart was really
interesting since it compares California to some other States:
STATE
|
% OF BRIDGES
STRUCTURALLY DEFICIENT |
% OF ROADS
IN POOR CONDITION |
% OF ROADS
IN FAIR CONDITION |
% OF ROADS
IN GOOD CONDITION |
|||||
Ala.
|
9%
|
8.50%
|
25.10%
|
66.40%
|
|||||
Alaska
|
11%
|
24.00%
|
40.90%
|
35.10%
|
|||||
Ariz.
|
3%
|
14.10%
|
28.10%
|
57.80%
|
|||||
Ark.
|
7%
|
30.80%
|
46.00%
|
23.30%
|
|||||
Calif.
|
12%
|
36.60%
|
42.50%
|
21.00%
|
|||||
Colo.
|
7%
|
19.30%
|
51.20%
|
29.50%
|
|||||
Conn.
|
10%
|
47.90%
|
40.20%
|
11.90%
|
|||||
D.C.
|
13%
|
96.70%
|
2.90%
|
0.30%
|
|||||
Del.
|
6%
|
20.20%
|
35.80%
|
44.00%
|
|||||
Fla.
|
2%
|
11.00%
|
27.90%
|
61.10%
|
|||||
Ga.
|
6%
|
8.30%
|
48.80%
|
42.90%
|
|||||
Hawaii
|
13%
|
38.80%
|
40.10%
|
21.10%
|
|||||
Idaho
|
9%
|
17.70%
|
20.70%
|
61.60%
|
|||||
U.S. BRIDGES FALLING DOWN
In May, a bridge classified as functionally
obsolete — the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River in Washington —
collapsed after a truck struck a girder. No one died or was seriously injured.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause.
Every 4 years, the American Society of Civil
Engineers releases a Report Card for America’s Infrastructure that depicts the
condition and performance of the nation’s infrastructure in the familiar form
of a school report card by assigning letter grades to each type of
infrastructure.
The ASCE's 2013 Report gave America an overall D+ grade. Each category was evaluated on the basis of
capacity, condition, funding, future need, operation and maintenance, public
safety and resilience.
Aviation: D Ports: C
Bridges: C+ Public Parks and Recreation: C-
Dams: D Rail: C+
Drinking Water: D Roads: D
Energy: D+ Schools: D
Hazardous Waste: D Solid Waste: B-
Inland Waterways: D- Transit: D
Levees: D- Waste Water: D
A = Exceptional
B = Good
C = Mediocre
D = Poor
F = Failing
The report estimated that the investment needed by 2020 was $3.6
Trillion! - which even in today’s
dollars sounds a lot more than the “A Dollar a Day, Three Hots, and a Flop”
that was promised to the CCC workers during the Great Depression.
Hopefully, another big crisis like the Great Depression and/or the
loss of life due to a major failure of some part of America’s infrastructure
won’t be needed to make Congress and the American people wake up and act on
this problem!
Sources:
ww.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/28/roads-bridges-decaying/2594499/
Interesting post, especially because of this past year's weather conditions (mainly on the East Cost). However, even in California, infrastructure might be more succeptible to damage because although the magnitude of our storm is not very big in comparison to the snow storms in New York, it is a drastic change from what we are used to. There is actually a quite recent bill called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which is more commonly known as the stimulus package, which is nearly identical to the CCC. It provides unemployment relief and also invests in infrastructure, health, education, and renewable energy. In the infrastructure sector, this bill provided weathering for 75% of federal buildings, in addition to construction and repair of many roads (part of the investment was also directed to improving and expanding broadband and wireless services!!). If you were looking for a modern version of the CCC/FERA, research more on this (link: http://www.recovery.gov/arra/About/Pages/The_Act.aspx ) So interesting to note that history repeats itself, especially when the precedent is successful.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see how low the score for each category is. Is this in comparison to other countries? I was especially surprised to see that over a third of roads in California are in poor condition. I know we live in the silicon valley, but that seems off.
ReplyDelete