Anyone who has some international travel experience knows that airports provide visitors with the first impression of a host country, and first impressions matter.

I must have travelled to the U.S. about 10 times, but I still remember vividly the first time I flew over to New York JFK. When I got there, I was welcomed by a sense of chaos, queues, and of a place that felt generally “old”, as did the rest of the United States infrastructure. Airport runways, roads, railways were and still are far below the standards expected from a country that’s seen by many as the centre for innovation, where stuff gets “done” and when, if something does not work, it gets fixed.

The discussion about the States’ crumbling roads and bridges and inadequate airports and railways is not new, but little has been done by a stalling Congress to address the issues, as the ballooning deficit eats into the funds required to maintain, let alone improve the existing network.
It is no surprise, therefore, that the latest Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers every 4 years, gives the US a disappointing D+.

Source: Financial Times; ASCE

The issues that need to be solved are several Continue reading →