Letter: Potholes just part of broken infrastructure
Two eastbound lanes of the Long Island Expressway between Exits 37 and 39 will be closed on Wednesday, March 5, 2014 until 2 p.m. as a crew repairs potholes in the road. Credit: Newsday / John Paraskevas
Sunday's news story "LI's pothole plague" confirms what every Nassau County driver knows: We may have a First World economy, but we have a Third World infrastructure.
In 2013, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave America's infrastructure D+ in its assessment of roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, railways, water treatment plants, sewage treatment plants, etc.
We cannot maintain a First World economy with a crumbling infrastructure. On Long Island, most roads are the responsibility of local governments -- but we have too many levels of government. A consolidation of local government would render efficiencies and economies of scale that cannot be realized under our present structure.
The civil engineers estimated that $3.6 trillion is needed nationally for repairs. Shift political priorities and spend it quickly, or we will slip from First World status.
Bill Bogatz, Great Neck
Editor's note: The writer is an economics teacher.
