Kiplinger Letter: For Infrastructure, Stimulus Just a Patch Job

From Kiplinger Letter:  

The federal stimulus spending will fill a lot of potholes around the country, but it won't go far in filling a very deep hole in U.S. infrastructure needs. The roughly $27 billion being doled out to states this year and next is actually less than the yearly gap between what the federal government would normally spend and what states need to maintain and repair infrastructure, such as crumbling highways, bridges and overpasses. Stimulus funds won't help get projects started that are considered crucial to untangling traffic snarls that sap business productivity and stall motorists. Replacing New York's Tappan Zee Bridge across the Hudson River, for example, likely will cost up to $7 billion. But that entire state's road infrastructure stimulus payment will total just over $1 billion. In Oregon, funding will fall woefully short of what's needed to build bridges connecting the state to Washington via the I-5 or to build a 4,000-mile highway to Texas.