Bridge Construction In Virginia

In the last decade, the United States has encountered serious problems as results of deficient or failed infrastructures, which caused inconvenience to the residents and slowed down the nation’s economy. Most of the electrical grid and pipelines in the U.S., which originated from the 1880s, are outdated. The number of failure and power interruption are increasing due to ongoing permitting issues, weather events, and limited maintenance. 45% of American households lack any access to transit, and millions more have inadequate service level. Many transit agencies are struggling on maintaining their aging fleets and facilities. The increasing ridership and deteriorating transit infrastructures cost U.S. economy $90 billion in 2010. The problem …show more content…
56% of the 20,997 bridges and culverts in Virginia are close to the end of their designed service life. It has been 30 years for most of them since they were constructed, and 30% of them are over 50 years old. About 1 of 4 bridges in Virginia are structurally deficient, which requires maintenance, rehabilitation or replacement. Some of them even don’t meet the current design standards. The dams bring many benefits to the residents of Virginia, which includes recreation, water supply, irrigation, flood control and power generation. However, most of them were built 50 years ago and are susceptible to damage. There are 312 dams in Virginia which have been regulated as high hazard dams by Dam safety officials. They are 82 more than in 2011, and 45% of them do not meet the current safety standards of dams. More than 7 million of residents of Virginia are using the drinkable water supplied by the 2830 public water systems. Many of these systems are over 70 years old, and 9% of the supplied water were reported having water quality violation. There were about $200 million awarded to Virginia for improving the infrastructures of public water systems. However, this fund is even less than 5% of the current need. Virginia has been ranked as one of the top states for freight carloads with more than 3200 miles of railroads across the state. Some of the largest port facilities are located on the East Coast of Virginia. The railroad business has encountered explosive growth in terms of passenger rail ridership recently, and the rail traffic is expected to be doubled by 2035. Records show that the current funding will not meet the demand for improving and upgrading the rail infrastructures. Virginia has the 3rd largest state roadway system in the U.S. It faces the problem of traffic congestion and gridlock caused by lacking capacity.