WASHINGTON - Just weeks after a massive blackout cut power to tens of millions of people in North America, a national engineering group warned on Thursday that much of the rest of the United States' infrastructure is also in dire need of overhaul.

The infrastructure that supports our economy and quality of life is crumbling and we have failed to invest in the improvements needed to keep pace with our growing population, let alone our increasing demand.

ASCE President Tom Jackson

The American Society of Civil Engineers said the total five-year cost of the work needed on items from roads to drinking water systems and schools has surged to $1.6 trillion from the $1.3 trillion it estimated two years ago.

"The lights go out on Broadway. What can happen if America fails to invest in its infrastructure? Anything," the group warned in a statement.

Electricity industry experts blamed aging infrastructure for last month's cascading blackout in cities across the Midwest and Northeast United States and the Canadian province of Ontario.

The engineering group went further, assessing 12 types of infrastructure and finding the condition of roads, transit, energy, drinking water, waste water, dams and navigable waterway infrastructure had worsened over the last two years.

No progress had been made in improving schools, bridges, the aviation system, or solid waste and hazardous waste infrastructure. It left the overall grade unchanged, however, at D+, promising a more thorough assessment in 2005.

"The infrastructure that supports our economy and quality of life is crumbling and we have failed to invest in the improvements needed to keep pace with our growing population, let alone our increasing demands," ASCE President Tom Jackson told a news briefing, adding that America risked falling behind other nations.

"Quite simply, we're behaving like the rabbit in the old fable, napping while everyone else catches up."

The chances for action in any of the 12 areas the group surveyed seem slim as the federal government tightens its belt around a projected 2004 deficit of $480 billion.

State governments are also struggling with their worst fiscal crisis since World War II.

"Furthermore, the threat of possible terrorist attacks on critical infrastructure has diverted maintenance and growth funding in order to implement infrastructure security measures," the group said.

The engineering society is pushing for Congress to pass several pieces of legislation that will provide hundreds of billions of dollars for infrastructure needs.

The biggest would be a six-year transportation funding bill which the U.S. House of Representatives wants to finance at $375 billion and the Senate at $311 billion.

Controversy over numerous issues, including how to raise the necessary revenues, is likely to delay action until next year, however.

Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd

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