The collapse of the Minnesota interstate bridge, coupled with the explosion of a steam tunnel in Manhattan, should arouse the country to the need for massive infrastructure investment -- and reform of the way it’s financed.

It’s a miracle that more people weren’t killed and injured in the two instances...

Urgent attention will be paid for a few weeks to America’s highway bridges -- 15 percent to 25 percent of which are believed to be structurally deficient -- because of the collapse in Minneapolis.

But attention ought to be paid in a bigger way to the deficiencies in America’s highways, its electric grid, railways, airports, waterways and urban utilities. They all are clogged, inefficient, a sap on the nation’s productivity and competitiveness -- and, in some cases, dangerous.

What’s needed is bipartisan action...

As part of the New America Foundation’s compelling report “Ten Big Ideas for a New America”... Sherle Schwenninger noted that from 1950 to 1970, the U.S. devoted 3 percent of its gross domestic product to infrastructure but since 1980 has spent less than 2 percent. A percent of GDP amounts to $140 billion a year in current dollars that the U.S. is not spending to keep its economy growing. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates national infrastructure needs double that -- $1.6 trillion over a five-year period.

Schwenninger proposed that the U.S. government needs a capital budget to fund infrastructure rather than relying on separate trust funds and appropriations to pay for various projects...

For the complete article, please visit the Roll Call web site.