The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) just released its first-ever Report Card for West Virginia’s infrastructure, giving the state an overall grade of “D.” This grade indicates the state’s infrastructure is in poor condition with new construction and repair efforts unable to keep up with the state’s needs. The report card was also broken down into infrastructure categories, giving grades for bridges (D+), dams (D), drinking water (D), roads (D+), and wastewater (D).
The report found that of West Virginia’s 7,291 bridges, 21% are structurally deficient, which is significantly greater than the national average of 7%. Of the 38,854 miles of public roads in West Virginia, 31% are in poor condition compared to 21% nationally. As a result, the ASCE report estimates that it costs $723 per motorist per year to drive on roads in need of repair in West Virginia.
Dams in West Virginia were also rated as poor, with 75% of the state’s dams classified as having high-hazard potential, indicating that failure would result in significant economic loss and loss of life. The state would reportedly need more than $900 million in funding to continue the operation, maintenance, and repair of high-hazard dams.
Lastly, an estimated $1.39 billion is needed in drinking water infrastructure over the next 20 years with West Virginia currently losing more than 50% of their treated water due to leaks in infrastructure. Significant portions of West Virginia’s wastewater systems have also deteriorated with 59 combined sewer systems needing $1.2 billion in funds to address state and federal requirements.
Some encouraging prospects, however, include the establishment of the West Virginia Roads to Prosperity Program in 2017, which will ultimately invest $2.8 billion in more than 700 road and bridge projects and create over 48,000 jobs. In addition, inter-agency collaborations are expanding access to resources to upgrade drinking water and wastewater infrastructure to meet new quality standards. Overall, it’s important to note that West Virginia’s “D” infrastructure grade is on par with the nation’s overall D+ grade from the most recent 2017 infrastructure report card for the United States. You can read West Virginia’s full ASCE infrastructure report card here.
Photo credit: Shawn Ullerup, CC BY 4.0
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