Safety First Is More than a Slogan

Federal officials from President Joe Biden on down have pledged a speedy rebuild of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed last week after a 100,000-ton cargo ship lost power and collided with one of the bridge’s support pillars, killing six construction workers on site.

While this collision may qualify as a freakish accident, it was an accident waiting to happen. The infrastructure in the world’s wealthiest nation is getting worse with age, and the government is playing catch-up to try to compensate for decades of neglect.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issues a report card every four years on the condition of America’s roads, bridges, airports, and utilities, providing cost estimates and ideas for repairs and maintenance. Its next report is due a year from now, but its last report, released in March 2021, assigned American infrastructure an overall grade of C-minus.

That’s a slight improvement from the D-plus it handed out in both 2017 and 2013, but it still shows slippage from the C grade it conferred when it first started issuing reports in 1988.