Editorial: Focus On Infrastructure To Strengthen Economy

Because the undertaking to help restore a strong economy is not and will not be a short-lived one, we risk redundancy by emphasizing again that repairing and modernizing the nation’s infrastructure would be a good way to go. President-elect Obama seems to agree.

Focusing on the infrastructure—and to be sure, focusing for a time on the water transportation infrastructure—will sow seeds of success because it will create many jobs and, for many in the construction industry, keep them on the job and out of the unemployment lines. Obama appears to be focusing a portion of his effort on job creation. The challenge, however, is not just to create new jobs but to preserve the ones that now exist.

In using the infrastructure as a focusing point for strengthening the economy, the new administration should prioritize the list of projects to which it intends to finance. Often heard among political pundits is the point of view that focus should be on projects that can be begun immediately. In other words, the long-term planning has been completed, and the planners are merely waiting for financing to begin work. Prioritizing in this manner would put money in the pockets of workers faster. In turn, they could spend, which would benefit a wide variety of mercantile entities. The water transport infrastructure is perfect for this, because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a huge backlog of projects upon which to break ground, so to speak.

When the economy is down, construction is among those activities that suffer. Strengthening the construction industry—giving them a full agenda and sound financing—would ensure that at least some additional workers would not be laid off, and it would create thousands of new jobs across the country. The broad venue of river construction projects would tend to spread the financial boost into areas where it is sorely needed.

There would be a huge bonus to be enjoyed from this approach to fixing the economy. River construction requires a lot of concrete and steel. Providing sufficient amounts of concrete and steel would increase activities at these plants and likely be cause to call back workers who have been laid off. It might even lead to reopening plants that have had to shut down due to lack of demand for product. Navigational structures also utilize electrical and hydraulic components, all of which have to be manufactured and (don’t forget) transported to the job site. Many of the products utilized in the construction can be transported via barge, rail and/or truck. So transportation would get another boost.

Still another bonus would develop, because the nation would be accomplishing river infrastructure work that has been neglected for years—work that is begging for a means of finance. Not to be overlooked is the fact that dollars invested in water resource development are dollars well spent. They are productive dollars that increase in value. Added benefits result from improved flood protection and less facility downtime faced as the result of debilitating mishaps at aging navigational structures. It is obviously our thinking that repairing and upgrading river infrastructure is a win-win situation. Further, environmental improvements also take place along with the projects.

There are, of course, other kinds of infrastructure projects that have been neglected and should be undertaken. The entire transportation network could use a facelift.

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