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F$BLISHER Alan Oakes (aioakes@a0l.com)

PUBLISHER EIIER|TUS David Cutler

EDIIOR David Koenig (dkoenig@buiHing-products.com

ASSOCIATE EDFOR Karen Debatc (kdebats@building-producls.com)

CONTRIBI.'TING EDTTORS

Owight Curran, Carla WaBemar

AD SALES ITANAGER Chuck Casey (ccasey@building-producls.com)

CIRCULATPN HeatherKelly (hkelly@building-products.com)

ADI'II{ISTFATION I'IRECTOff$ECRETARY Marie Oakes (mfpoakes@aol.com)

How to Advertise

Conlact our adyerfuing otllcos lor r8tos: WESI, lllDWEST, SOUIIIEASI: Chuck Casey, Newport Beach, Ca.; (949) 852-1990; Fax 949852-0231 ; Email ceasey@building-products.@m

NORTHEAST: Paul Mummolo, Brick, N.J.; (732) 899-8102; Fu 732-899-2758; Email pmummolo @aol.com

How to Subscribe conhct lbathel at (9{9) et2-1s0

U.S.: 1 year (12 issues), $15; 2 years, $24; 3 years, $30

FOREIGN (Per year paid in advance in US funds): $39 for Canada and Mexico, $50 lor all other counries; Air rales also available.

S|I'IGLE COPIES: $3 + shipping; Back issues (when availabb), $4.50+shipping www,bul ldlng-products.com

ALAN OAKES publisher ajoakes@aol.com

The U.S. is falling apart

As you travel around the U.S.A., you cannot help but notice how our national infrastructure is simply eroding away. I am sure every one of us can look at our own neighborhood, town and city and see how bad it is getting. What our local, city, regional and federal govemments spend is simply not enough to keep up with the crumbling bricks and mortar of our living environment.

Whatever youlook atour schools, roads, bridges, sewers, power grids, transit systems, parks, drinking water-is not getting the investment required to bring it up to our current needs. The long-term impact is that our quality of life is eroding, and the cost of catching up and replacing the patch mentality mindset we have today is only getting higher. At some point the piper has to be paid.

A recent survey by the American Society of Civil Engineers concluded the United States is falling apart, and gave a D grade-worse than the last report in 2001 which gave a D+ rating. Some of the findings included: for every $1 needed to be spent on our drinking water, only 10 cents is being spent; the number of unsafe dams has risen to 33Vo; fwding has been cut for waste water despite many of the older systems discharging untreated sewage; railroad capacity is increasingly limited, at a time when demand is increasing (as our industry is well aware); probably a quarter of our bridges are either obsolete or close to.

Yet it seems no one is talking about it. The whole issue is not only about the engineering issues or the money needed, it is about the social issues as our way of life and our health and safety are on the line. One of the issues most of us can identify with is how much time we spend in our cars getting to or from work or getting to visit or deliver to customers. We are not only spending more time driving and less time with our families, but we are also using more fuel, creating other issues. A recent study suggested that here in Los Angeles, commuters are wasting $1,668 annually in excess fuel costs and lost time. My son does a minimum 2.5 hours each way to work that should barely take an hour. It does not matter what time of day or night, the freeways always seem choked up. In this report,TIVo of roads were seen to be in a poor or mediocre condition.

Our children are not only paying now with the increasing enrollment demands for our schools with lower quality education, but they will be the ones who will have to pay down the road, not unlike the social security issues they will also have to face in the future.

Now maybe we are not talking about it because we may understand what it will cost us to put these issues right. In fact, the cost for needed repairs and improvements over the next five years is estimated to be for every citizen (adult and children) about $1,000 annually until 2010. It really did not come up as an issue in the last election, probably because not one of us thinks we do not pay too much in taxes already. However, first of all one wonders how much of the current taxes we pay is wasted in ridiculous pork barrel schemes that could be put to better use. While I cynically believe that politicians are not likely to make the right choices, I am equally concerned about what happens if these issues are not taken care of and, from a selfish point of view, what would be the value to this industry if all the repairs and rebuilding that are needed actually took place. Maybe this is where our industry lobbyists should spend some of their time.