Oroville Dam drags California's $65 billion infrastructure annual price tag into the open
Last edited Wed Feb 15, 2017, 10:56 PM - Edit history (1)
SACRAMENTO — Shock over the emergency evacuation downriver from the Oroville Dam has given way to serious questions about how California is coping with its aging infrastructure — which the American Society of Civil Engineers says would cost the state a staggering $65 billion per year to fix and maintain after years of neglect.
“The idea that we have to evacuate 200,000 residents in this day and age is just a shame,” said Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, pointing to a Bay Area News Group story this week that revealed how state and federal officials in 2005 ignored warnings about the dam’s emergency spillway.
Fixing old roads, bridges and dams is a costly proposition that is often the first to be put on hold during times of fiscal crisis, experts say. They note that the physical underpinnings of our society tend to be invisible until they fail and there’s a mad scramble to repair the damage.
But now, amid deep concern over the safety of the state’s second largest dam and with a Republican White House eager to spend as much as $1 trillion over 10 years on infrastructure, California finds itself in an awkward position politically.
Read more: http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/02/14/oroville-dam-drags-californias-aging-infrastructure-into-the-open/