After a dollop of lip service and a $150 billion injection ofstimulus funding mostly for desperately needed fix-it projects,America’s slowly corroding and crumbling infrastructure looks likeit will get less attention rather than more in the New Year. Allthe excitement generated in 2009 about high speed rail linesspringing up across the country has dissipated in budget bustingrealities. Cities cut back on or delay subway and light railprojects. Water districts postpone plans to replace or upgraderusting mains and past-their-life-cycle sewage treatmentplants. Maybe worst of all and indicative of the country’smounting predicament, highway departments in states and citiesaround the country make triage decisions about whether they repairdangerous bridges or take their chances for another year onpatching and monitoring since they don’t have the money to doanything else.

While politician priorities are tax cuts and deficit reduction,the systems that facilitate mobility, economic growth, andprosperous lifestyles degrade slowly, threatening to undermine thecountry’s global standing. Liberals talk up healthcare and SocialSecurity. Conservatives just want to put more money in (less faceit wealthy) people’s pockets. It’s somehow critical to our nationaldefense that we’ve spent the past nearly 10 years fighting trilliondollar wars. But no one seems to get that our transport networks,water systems, and power grids are beginning to look and act moreThird World than New Age. And given our other priorities,there is no funding or impetus to take action.

Somehow the fat cat in his Beemer might be more inclined to giveup that tax cut on earnings above $250,000 a year if he consideredthat chances are growing that the overpass he’s about to drive overcould collapse or the bridge to his beach house might need to closedown for replacement. What happens if the power grid to a majormetro shorts out for a week? Try charging your I-Pad or makinge-trades on your battery depleted cell phone. And do you feel anysafer flying because our air traffic controllers use radar systemsdating back to World War II rather than new GPS technologies?