The damages that Hurricane Sandy left on the east cost of the US, especially in New York and New Jersey, show not only the forces of nature but also how fragile are the infrastructures and the transportation systems. The strong contrast between the massive development of the private sector (real estate and commercial) and the aging and rusting infrastructures makes one wonder how come in a city like New York, which is the world financial capital, the infrastructure is so silent and forgotten? well, maybe until the next hurricane...
From a world leader in new technologies and infrastructure, the US now finds itself now far behind in comparison to Europe, the "four Asian tigers" and of course China. The massive investment in transportation in the first half of the last century has decreased dramatically in the last 50 years. Only between 1903 - 1909 three iconic bridges were inaugurated in New York: Williamsburg bridge, Manhattan bridge and Queens borough bridge. Verrazano bridge, that was open to the public on 1964 was probably the last one of its kind.
Nowadays the city can hardly complete three subway stations that make part of the "new" Second Avenue subway, a project that was already planed and partly realized (only the tunnels) in the first half of the last century.
Meanwhile, the local authorities that run infrastructure: roads, bridges, rail and mass transit, are under severe financial strain because maintenance costs have increased faster than tax revenues. A February 2009 report from the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission warned that without policy changes, state and local governments would raise only about a third of the $200 billion needed each year to maintain and improve the roads and transit systems.
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