Has infrastructure in the United States reached an inflection point?
We are going to look at growth of two major forms of infrastructure to determine whether this is true. The three forms are transport and communication infrastructure. For transport infrastructure, we are going to look at roads and railways while the communication infrastructure is going to cover telephone and internet infrastructure.
From 2005 up to the present, total spending on transport infrastructure has fallen by 20%. The government funds most of the transportation infrastructure. At the same time, communication infrastructure, which is mostly funded by the private sector, showed a 50% increase in spending. The difference in investment s shows the imbalance in the infrastructure in the country. The less spending on transport infrastructure comes at a time when the available infrastructure is in a state of disrepair. Most of the roads and railways in the country were built more than fifty years ago and they have come to the end of their lifespan. This is especially critical with bridges and tunnels, which pose a risk to the public. The less investment in infrastructure means that no funds are available to replace the crumbling infrastructure and to expand the network (LePatner, 2010). On the contrary, investment in communication infrastructure has been on the rise. The new broadband network is meant to replace the existing copper wire landlines. The network