City's infrastructure repair pegged at $47B
Thornton McEnery
New York City’s infrastructure vulnerabilities are massive and worsening, a situation that would cost tens of billions of dollars over the next five years to repair, argues a report released Tuesday.
The Center for an Urban Future study estimates that the city needs to spend $47.3 billion over the next four or five years to bring its decrepit infrastructure to a state of good repair. In addition to more than 1,000 miles of century-old water mains that have averaged 400 breaks a year since 1998, the report points to a $34.2 billion capital funding gap shared by the city and other agencies to replace or repair decaying assets like sewer mains, gas lines, hospitals, bridges, homeless shelters and schools.
"Simply put, too much of the city’s essential infrastructure remains stuck in the 20th century," states the report. "[It is a] problem for a city positioning itself to compete with other global cities in today’s 21st-century economy."
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg made major increases in infrastructure spending during his three terms, putting as much as $41.3 billion toward that budget line between 2007 and 2010. According to the report, however, the Bloomberg administration spent much of that money on new schools and parks at the expense of maintaining and repairing existing assets. Mr. Bloomberg’s 2007 PlaNYC recognized the state of aging water mains and called for replacing 80 miles of them every year. The actual annual average of replacement was 27 miles.
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140311/ECONOMY/140319969/citys-infrastructure-repair-pegged-at-47b