With elections nearing, one of the hot topics will be infrastructure.
That’s especially true after the bridge collapse in Baltimore.
According to Mary Kane, president and CEO of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, “This event has underscored the crucial role that our nation’s infrastructure plays in supporting the daily lives of our citizens and the smooth functioning of our economy.”
It also highlights the fact that – other than airports, dams, drinking water, energy, waste, ports, rail, roads, school and transit which need to be fixed – bridges are in bad shape. Right now, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (SYM: ASCE) report card, about 42%of the nation’s 617,000 bridges are more than 50 years old. About 46,154 bridges are in poor shape.
“We need to increase spending on bridge rehabilitation from $14.4 billion annually to $22.7 billion annually, or by 58%, if we are to improve the condition. At the current rate of investment, it will take until 2071 to make all of the repairs that are necessary, and the additional deterioration over the next 50 years will become overwhelming,” they added.
In short, our infrastructure is in bad shape.
And should we hear more about it heading into the elections, you may want to consider infrastructure stocks like Martin Marietta (SYM: MLM), Vulcan Materials (SYM: VMC), Caterpillar (SYM: CAT), and ETFs such as the iShares U.S. Infrastructure ETF (SYM: IFRA).
With an expense ratio of 0.30% and 162 holdings, the ETF tracks the investment results of “equities of U.S. companies that have infrastructure exposure and that could benefit from a potential increase in domestic infrastructure activities,” says iShares.com.
Without needed repairs, we’re in real trouble.
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