When Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which spans the Patapsco River in Baltimore, entirely collapsed last week after being struck by a cargo ship that lost power, focus nationally returned to the issue of infrastructure, that term politicians throw around when campaigning, but most citizens know little about.
Ask members of the general public to define “infrastructure” and you will get some interesting answers, summed up by one telling response: “Infra-what?”
For clarity, infrastructure is defined as “the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g. buildings, roads, power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.”
According to a CNBC report, the states with the best infrastructure are Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, Arizona, South Carolina, Nevada, Colorado, Kansas and Virginia.
Texas infrastructure grade
And though Texas avoided the CNBC report’s bottom 10 infrastructure states, the 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure produced by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave Texas a grade of “C.”
Regarding Texas infrastructure realities, 47% of roads are in poor or fair condition, which is a huge issue in larger urban areas like Houston. Thus, the state’s highways and roads earned a D+. Also, the state has 49 high-hazard dams creating a situation of bad floods waiting to happen, giving Texas another D+. With regard to the recent Baltimore bridge tragedy, there’s good news for Texans. Only 1.4% of the state’s 55,175 bridges were deemed structurally deficient earning Texas a B-. The bad news is, that 1.4% equates to 772 bridges.
Other Texas infrastructure grades include drinking water (C-), flood risk (C-) and wastewater (D). The state had a better showing regarding energy (B+), solid waster (B) and aviation (B-).
Moves have been made to improve that “C” grade. Last November, Texas voters approved a new broadband expansion fund to the tune of $1.5 billion. How much of that will go towards bridging the digital divide is still unclear.
“We can look at this as a driving force, but we can’t say the public funds are going to be the hear-all, say-all of closing the digital divide because we’re going to need to see private investment,” said Greg Conte, the director of the Texas Broadband Development Office.
In November 2023, Texas voters also approved with 77.6% voting yes for the creation of the Texas water fund to assist in financing state water projects that will hopefully improve the state of the state’s drinking water.
Infrastructure and Blacks in Houston
Some of the biggest infrastructure challenges Houston faces include traffic congestion, flooding and aging bridges and highways.
Not surprisingly, the state’s Black communities face the worst infrastructure realities. For example, in 2023 University of Texas at Austin researchers found that majority-Black neighborhoods in Houston experienced 35% more pedestrian crashes than non-Black neighborhoods.
While these majority Black neighborhoods only made up a total of 14% of the area surveyed by the researchers, they experienced 35% more pedestrian crashes than non-Black neighborhoods, according to the analysis.
“What we’ve learned is that Black neighborhood locations are significantly overrepresented in the pool of pedestrian fatalities and severe injuries, by yards, not inches, and we wanted to understand what causes this disparity,” said Chandra Bhat, a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, who co-authored the study recently published in Accident Analysis and Prevention.
Though many factors played in to the disparity, the researchers laid the blame on primarily on what they called a poorly designed built environment. Roadway and pedestrian infrastructure in majority Black neighborhoods were more unfriendly to pedestrians than the infrastructure in non-majority Black neighborhoods.
“The racial disparity in pedestrian safety may be tied, at least in part, to the broader systemic discrimination experienced by racial minorities across the smorgasbord of societal domains,” the study read.
Moreover, the report said infrastructural deficiencies contributed to 54% of the pedestrian crashes in the Black neighborhoods that were surveyed.
“You had poor lighting, you had missing sidewalks, you had poorly maintained sidewalks, if they were even there. You have multi-lane roadways and it takes more time to cross these kinds of intersections,” added Bhat.
U.S. Senate candidate U.S. Rep Colin Allred, like so many politicians, lists infrastructure as critical. His website states:
Our infrastructure is outdated and already beginning to fail our commuters, businesses and families. That is why, as a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure committee, Congressman Allred supports increased investment and innovative programs to rebuild our highways, airports, bridges, and railroads. Investment in our country’s infrastructure is vital to a prosperous economy, and these projects will create millions of jobs, invigorating local economies, boosting middle-class families, and improving quality of life for Americans everywhere.
