The Truth about Infrastructure | Cato Institute

The Truth about Infrastructure | Cato Institute: "Spending advocates point to the 61,000 bridges that are rated “structurally deficient” (meaning they require more than routine maintenance). Yet they never mention that this number has steadily declined from nearly 138,000 in 1990 even as the number of highway bridges has grown. This continuing decline hardly signals a crisis.

The vast majority of structurally deficient bridges are locally owned. Some 15 percent of local bridges are deficient, compared with less than 4 percent of freeway bridges, which are mostly state owned.

A similar situation exists for highway pavement. The average roughness of pavement has steadily improved, but the smoothest pavements are state owned while local streets tend to have the most potholes."