And the acidic rain is contributing to the problem. The reason infrastructure rusts so quickly in those areas is the pollution through gasoline and diesel based

And the acidic rain is contributing to the problem. The reason infrastructure rusts so quickly in those areas is the pollution through gasoline and diesel based engines. The rain collects the gases and binds them, leading to to an acidic solution that attacks the metal and concrete. In Europe there is a startup that tries to combat this with embedded bacteria and limestone plates that are put into the concrete. If the concrete gets a crack, the rain gets into the crack and activates the bacteria which is producing limestone to fill in the gaps. [1] [2] That approach has a much better chance to improve infrastructure lifespan in my opinion, because just putting more steel into it is not something that's affordable. Iron as a resource is way too rare as it is already. [1] https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/european-inventor-award/meet-the-finalists/hendrik-marius-jonkers https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/european-inventor-award/m... [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_pseudofirmus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_pseudofirmus