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I think Strongtowns would argue that cities are taking on infrastructure debt — that Seattle should be spending far more than $150-200m. The cost could be somew
by milesskorpen 7y ago
I think Strongtowns would argue that cities are taking on infrastructure debt — that Seattle should be spending far more than $150-200m. The cost could be somewhat visible in the short term with more potholes or whatever, but probably becomes most striking when there are major infrastructure failures like the I-35W bridge or the Genoa Bridge.
If you take your assumptions on face (and I think some might be off, but I'm not expert), we're saying that homeowners should think of the cost of repaving roads as on par with replacing a roof. I don't think most people think this way.
- bcrosby95 7y agoLast I looked Strongtown calculations seem to be based on areas in the Midwest. It's plausible that more expensive places to live are making enough to maintain infrastructure. For example I live in a 50 year old 1.5k square foot house in a suburb and pay around 12k/year in property taxes. Which was far above the calculations one of the blog posts said that the town would have to collect.
- mark-r 7y agoThe I-35W bridge collapse had nothing to do with insufficient maintenance, in fact maintenance materials and vehicles on the bridge were a contributing factor. The primary cause was weak gusset plates, incorrectly specified when the bridge was first built 40 years earlier.