Good point.
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Many were mourning the loss of Infrastructure Week. This is a thoughtful warm sanity fuzzy.
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I used to live on a dirt road. Was told not cost effective to pave. I contacted all my neighbors on road and surveyed health related issues caused by dust. A dust that was ground to a very fine powder. I lived quarter mile off road and 350 feet above road, even with all windows locked down the dust was layered on things 5 minutes after dusting. Also asked about auto maint, tires wearing faster, filters, etc. Presented to town the results and proved when ALL cost were factored in was cheaper to pave.
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A good point, but only to a degree. The condition of our roads is shortening the life of every vehicle that drives across them, and the majority of energy expended in a vehicle’s life-cycle is in the manufacturing of the vehicle (I kid you not). The fuel pushed through a vehicle’s engine, regardless of what that fuel is, produces less greenhouse gasses than the manufacturing plants that create and assemble the vehicle.
This is actually getting worse, but that’s a good thing. As more fuel-efficient cars and cars that use non-fossil energy sources hit the roads the manufacturing cost on the environment becomes a higher percentage of the total. The best thing you can do is keep driving your current vehicle. It’s manufacturing cost to the environment is already sunk. Reduce the need to build new to help the environment.
But – that is difficult to do if your car is getting pounded to pieces daily on damaged, unmaintained roads. Shortening the average vehicle’s lifespan by even 18 months has a significant impact on the environment, on the lines of 10% additional carbon emissions per vehicle.
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Sure, if the country were paying for those things. But getting the Total Cost of Ownership idea through the “no new taxes” folks’ brains is difficult. Family health insurance around here costs probably 20 percent plus of the average household income. But how dare the gummint consider funding single payer with an 11 percent payroll tax.
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Slightly OT. When the destruction of the town of Paradise by fire occurred last year, it was revealed that no one on the city council for years would raise taxes to maintain and expand infrastructure. Thus, one road out of town made it difficult to evacuate the town, resulting in death. Many poor decisions by elected officials there resulted in destruction and tragedy, And this will continue with rebuilding taking place.
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A lesson in “If you don’t build it, they will go.”
I wonder if they learned it though…
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I don’t know if Warren can win the General, but she would make the kind of president who would take things like this on.
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As an add-on, I don’t remember the details, but I think that some big company was lining up to make a big investment in Wisconsin while the governor before Walker was making a big infrastructure push. Principally, there was a big light-rail plan in the works. Walker stomped in and smashed the light-rail plan. Then the big company reconsidered and pulled out of the state. No way to get the personnel required to the new buildings they had planned, so they found somewhere else to go.
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Interestingly it was a republican president who signed the bill creating Interstate highways in 48 states. No more. Rs don’t want to spend money and would rather prop up the 1% with tax cuts. There can’t be both.
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I only see one comment from someone who lives in the Bay Area and uses the parkway, I commute from the western side of SF and use it 2-3 times a week at least. The previous roadways, including Doyle Drive, were horrific. The new system is safe, attractive and well built and the roadway opened on time I believe. The landscaping is going in and largely complete. As far as the funding goes, it was “sold” back in the day as a great win for Boxer & DiFi, I did not know about the public/private partnership. It may well be a boondoggle, but I see no analysis in the article looking at costs for a pure publicly funded project vs. this one. We have several of those in the Bay Area and public funding is no guarantee of efficiency and transparency. I’m not saying public/private is good on principle, I just want more evidence, this article is lacking in that aspect and a bit inflammatory.
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One of the fundamental decisions any society makes is what proportion of the national wealth they want spent through government structures and what proportion under the control of a few fat cats.
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But “TAX CUTS!” or something…
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The infrastructure of public transit needs to be part of the mix. See this article in yesterday’s Denver Post. https://www.denverpost.com/2019/09/29/i-25-expansion-plan-cdot/
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While it is important to question the applicability of given types of public private partnerships and pay-for-performance contracts to a given project or purpose - as well as to look at if their contracts have been constructed properly and work as intended - this article is riddled with factual inaccuracies and misleading statements.
As but one example the cost of capital for the total project financing was not materially different than tax exempt debt for the entire project. The equity investment was a sliver of the project financing (just like a house where a mortgage covers most of the financing). And indeed much of the long term debt is from a low cost federal loan program (more than making up for the federal subsidy which otherwise would have come inherently with pure tax exempt debt).
Here is accurate information - https://www.transportation.gov/tifia/financed-projects/presidio-parkway
It also would be good to consider the on time and on budget performance of all forms of contracting on Bay Area public infrastructure… -whether turnkey or piecemeal, P3 or paid upfront. What the drivers are when there have been overruns or poor post construction performance and why? The Bay Bridge was certainly not immune to issues despite having no private capital. Even the Presidio project itself was actually two phases - and only half of it was built with a P3 - so you can study how both worked out and why. In general there are overruns if the project’s requirements are not clear or change. Aligning the project and the delivery approach makes sense on a project-by-project basis.
Hyperbole and misinformation doesn’t help drive improved policy making or better implementation.
Rick Perry gave Texas a bunch of public/private toll roads. Of course the private entities have declared bankruptcy, so the state is on the hook for the deficiencies in construction.
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When Kasich was elected Governor of Ohio, one of his first efforts was to lease the Ohio Turnpike to investors for 50 years in exchange for a one time payment of $1.5 billion and 15% of net revenues per annum. The investors would be responsible for maintaining the road & related facilities.
After two years of fighting for it, Kasich finally gave up. Ohioans are proud of the Turnpike and are very aware of the privatization disaster to their west in Indiana.
[So, to cut taxes at the top while still paying for infrastructure improvements, and unwilling to raise the Ohio debt ceiling, Kasich then decided to change the law so that the Ohio Turnpike could also use its funds on non-Turnpike projects - and had the newly renamed Ohio Turnpike & Infrastructure Commission issue $1.5 billion in bonds for use on state highway projects. These bonds are being paid for via higher tolls.]
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Today’s Republican base doesn’t care about Republicans like Eisenhower, so no worries. The reps they send to DC can work for the Kochs.
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While I agree that the funding structure for the Presidio Parkway leaves us taxpayers holding the bag, this isn’t a boondoogle when it comes to infrastructure. “Boondoggle” implied that there is no underlying purpose to this work. This project has vastly improved traffic flow to and from the Golden Gate Bridge, one of our more heavily-used paths in the Bay Area, and the project has increased the amount of outdoor space available to visitors to the Presidio and Chrissy Field. As part of the project, multiple natural wet lands have been restored, water resources have been recovered, and original wildlife has returned to the area.
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Thanks TPM for showing we can work on the real problems of America while simultaneously going through a massive civic seizure on impeachment.
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