Infrastructure is the name given to the material structures which underlie social functioning, in particular economic functioning. Things like roads, bridges, tunnels, ports, waterways, sewerage systems, phone lines, communication systems, electricity supplies and supply lines. I'd also include social organisations like police, firefighters, health, disaster recovery, social welfare provisions, and defense forces.

Infrastructure does not have to be entirely beneficial for everyone. For example, roads can dispossess people, or split communities.

There are a number of useful articles on the problems of: see The State of U.S. Infrastructure

and the main document it refers to:

ASCE's 2021 American Infrastructure Report Card | GPA: C-

Also see: The Global Infrastructure Outlook

These document how infrastructure is both failing and not being repaired.

The question is not really how much it would cost to repair failing infrastructure, because that can be relatively little, but whether this repair is likely to happen before it gets completely out of hand.

As the people in the US point out, repair has not been happening until after the damage occurs, for a long while. Consequently, quality of infrastructure will probably keep on declining.

If extra stresses occur such as devastating storms, then the repairs are likely to be put on hold to repair more immediate problems, and even those repairs may become overwhelming. Some say repairs from Hurrican Katrina where sill ongoing 14 years later

 This free site is ad-supported. Learn more
​