Highway lobbyists like to claim that the reason our roads are in such bad shape is that we're spending money on "enhancements." But it just ain't so. Enhancements and the like get a small fraction of the budget, not enough to make a dent in fixing our Nation's "crumbling infrastructure." And, as we've mentioned elsewhere, a recent survey showed, Enhancements are popular with Americans.
What's really stopping many states from fixing what they have is their drive to add new highways and widen existing ones. States have spent twenty times as much money just adding "new capacity" as they have on enhancements. That's money they could, in many cases, be spending to fix existing roads.
That's why the ISTEA2 platform has a strong "Fix It First" plank. Fix It First is based on a very simple idea: if your roof is leaking, you don't spend your money adding a new sauna. Taking care of what we have is the real answer to the crumbling infrastructure. And ISTEA2 wants states to build highways to last by allowing them to ask highway contractors to guarantee their work.
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