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You are mistaking "what Cities spend on maintenance" for what it would cost to fully maintain the system. The author does a good job spelling this out: > If we
by burlesona 5y ago
You are mistaking "what Cities spend on maintenance" for what it would cost to fully maintain the system. The author does a good job spelling this out:
> If we convert 177 miles into feet it’s 934,560 feet of road. At $20 per foot per year, we would need to spend on average $18,691,200 a year on road maintenance just to keep all of our roads properly maintained.
Note his actual estimate is ~$18.6M not the ~$4M you quoted - that was his hypothetical "even if I'm wrong by 4x too high" number.
> According to the capital improvement plan from earlier we are planning to spend an average of $3,220,000 per year.
Note that the author's cost figure is just for roads and does not include other similarly expensive infrastructure like water lines that are included in the city's Capital Improvements budget.
The reason for this gap in infra funding is they don't have the money, so they let most of the infrastructure decay, and use the money they have to patch the worst problems as best they can.
Every city in America is doing this. We just so used to it we don't think anything of driving on roads that are full of cracks and potholes and generally falling apart.
This gap is why the American Society of Civil Engineers gives the US a C- on infrastructure. (https://infrastructurereportcard.org https://infrastructurereportcard.org)
- tptacek 5y agoNot that I disagree with your sentiment but the comment you're responding to observes that water lines --- the extra infrastructure beyond roads not included in the article's estimate but sort of implied as being significant --- are generally paid for by user fees, not property taxes.
- burlesona 5y agoI think this varies widely so any generalization needs many caveats… but I don’t think you can assume that. What I’ve usually seen is that water service, ie the cost of filtration and sewage treatment and maintaining pumps, is paid by user fees. Water infrastructure - the actual pipes - are usually considered capital projects and maintained out of different funds. But again the details vary on a subdivision by subdivision level not to mention state to state.
- tptacek 5y agoThat sounds right to me, too.
- jeffbee 5y agoWater service maintenance is often a different kind of pyramid scheme. In my area, for example, the user fees don't even remotely cover the maintenances, so the utility district relies very heavily on new service surcharges on new construction. These fees are completely outrageous, a minimum of $6000 for a tiny efficiency apartment less than 50 square meters. This obviously raises the prices of new construction. It also has the unfortunate result that the utility district budget waxes and wanes with the local construction market, and is subject to the whims of every local zoning board, so one town that never permits new construction still enjoys the flow of funds from the charges collected in other cities that do build.
- zeckalpha 5y agoI am billed by units of water used, not how far the water travels.
- fallingknife 5y agoI don't buy the $18 million number. If the city has been only doing one sixth of the required maintenance, the roads would already be degraded to a point where it was obvious.
- rdtwo 5y agoThe number includes replacement cost at end of life. Nobody calculates for that because it’s something you kick the can down the road for until you have catastrophic failure then you ask for state and federal funds
- ethanbond 5y agoHow do you know it’s not obvious? Road quality is a pretty standard complaint in small town America.
- fallingknife 5y agoI mean like undriveable obvious.
- jeffbee 5y agoWhy do you think this is impossible? My city has been under-funding road repair for fifty years, is now believed to be about $300 million behind, and owns 50 centerline miles, 22% of the total streets in the city, with a pavement condition of "failed".
- xyzzyz 5y agoCan you tell me which city is that? I’d like to take a stroll using Street View, to see what failed infrastructure looks like.
- jeffbee 5y agoBerkeley, California. For a typical but also amazing example, see the photo at the top of https://mtc.ca.gov/operations/programs-projects/streets-roads-arterials/pavement-condition-index https://mtc.ca.gov/operations/programs-projects/streets-road... ETA: Street View to get you started https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8675561,-122.2930415,3a,75y,277.31h,61.74t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1stmTJtWaJPp_WErO4UgK7ng!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8675561,-122.2930415,3a,75y,...
- cortesoft 5y agoMaybe “fully maintained” is too high a standard for most roads in most towns? Maybe we are ok with doing minimal maintenance on most roads because road quality is just not worth the cost?
- hinkley 5y agoWell, they've done research on the cost of preventing potholes versus the costs to repair vehicle damage caused by potholes and maintenance is cheaper than repair. I don't know how that speaks to water mains, except that there are other Flint Michigans waiting to happen because many municipalities still have sections of lead pipe in their water network. They're working, and they've already oxidized so they can't afford to fix that when the storm water system is falling apart or the dam is failing or there's a recession.
- cortesoft 5y agoDoes full maintenance just mean filling potholes? Or is it more than just that?