A City in Decay
Roads and highways are at the end of their usefulness, exposing the rough conglomerate that lay beneath what was once a pristine stretch of pavement. Deep cracks remedied with thin strips of asphalt are but a bandage atop a deep wound. Hundreds of local bridges are structurally deficient and lack an adequate timeline or funding for repair.
According to a 2015 study published by the U.S. Department of Transportation, as of 2012, there is an estimated $836 billion deficit in capital investment necessary to remedy the nation's worsening road conditions. This backlog has contributed to an estimated $154 billion combined cost of wasted time and fuel.
These infrastructure woes aren't limited to our roads and highways, however. Water drainage infrastructure is becoming increasingly inadequate, flooding streets and neighbourhoods during heavy rain events. Power poles are in desperate need of replacement. Every storm knocks out power to a significant region of the county, sometimes for days on end. These inadequacies are only set to worsen as the climate of Santa Cruz becomes more extreme.
I aim to showcase the decayed state of our local infrastructure in order to foster wider public awareness and interest in remedying these issues. I believe that by putting our local infrastructure inadequacies in focus, we can foster wider changes to our nation's infrastructure.
