The research scope includes U.S. infrastructures
Scope of the Research:
The research scope includes U.S. infrastructures, only speaking on specifically roads and bridges.
Sources of Data Collection:
Global Road Warrior (Globalroadwarrior.com)
Business Source Premier
USA.GOV/statistics
Preliminary Outline
- Introduction
Transportation is among the significant pillars of logistic and it heavily relies on infrastructure. It entails the movement of people, animals or things from one place to another. Infrastructure involves the organization of both physical and organizational structures as well as facilities necessary for effective societal or enterprise operations (Lexico, n.d.). The U.S infrastructure is aging and posing challenge to its operations. It may negatively influence supply chain flow creating longer lead time and increased transportation rates. This paper aims at discussing the impact of aging infrastructure such as weak bridges and poor road on logistics.
- Infrastructure
United States’ infrastructure is one of the largest and also aging transport networks in the world. In 2018, U.S had a record of 4,195,342 miles of roads and highways. Railways had 136,851 miles while inland waterways had 27, 342 miles (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2018). In 2016, U. S transport network was worth $7.7 trillion. It involved airports, waterways, railways, streets, bridges and highways. In 2017, the U.S transport infrastructure made a significant impact by shifting $1.139 trillion worth of freight. The contribution was from the all modes of transport. Trucks and rail made the most contribution with each having an estimate of $721 billion and $174 billion respectively (Bureau of Transportation Statistics). In 2019, trucks moved $57.2B of the U.S infrastructure. Trucks contribute above 70% of the freight movement and thus demand constant maintenance of roads. U.S has been spending about $80 million annually for both highway and street construction for the past one decade. 20% is used on roads, rail infrastructure and highways demanding for better maintenance. In 2014, the U.S government used $2.85B on highway maintenance. Having a continuous enhancement of tracking infrastructure is essential to ensure a balance and consistency in supply chain.
Achieving efficiency in moving freight through the supply chain highly relies on transportation infrastructure. According to ASCE, gaps in infrastructure investment are likely to result in more than $7 trillion national economy loss for period between 2015 and 2025. Having unreliable and ineffective transport infrastructure leads to poor shipment of goods across the supply chain (American Society of Civil Engineers). A reliable transport infrastructure is essential for businesses to make logistical decision based on the certain predictions.
- Bridges
Bridges are essential structures for all road users. They greatly impact the flow of supply chain as they influence effective transportation of goods. 9% of the bridges in U.S require monitoring and repair. Some of this bridges even though they are structurally deficient, they have trucks and vehicles crossing them about 178 million a day hence posing great danger (ARTBA, 2019). The more the bridges are used, the ore they continue to deteriorate. Some of the trucks are overweight and thus the state of the bridges risks failure of the trucks. In Ohio, there are about 19,000 oversize trucks that use bridges in the daily routes (Green, 2018).
The port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach are among the largest ports in California which makes the states to have great movement of goods. Unfortunately, California has 50% of its bridges beyond design life. Also, 7% of the total bridges are labeled structurally deficient. California bridges were graded at C Minus (ASCE, 2018). The grades are usually issued by engineers to show the state of the bridges.
Bridges can cause efficiency in transport or worsen the supply chain based on their conditions. Weight restrictions are put per bridge as it deteriorates. The carry weight capacity is reduced as the bridge condition worsens (Brunguard, 2015). When more strict restrictions are put, the tracks are expected to carry less capacity of goods. Therefore, companies incur extra cost on adding more trips or trucks imposing higher transportation rates. Besides, at times there can be a ban in loading trucks as a result of the heavy sizing. For instance, the Mississippi Department of Transport banned the use of Highway 49 southbound bridge due to deteriorating condition of bridge that needs repair and maintenance (Ashley, 2019). This leads to the trucks using alternative route which a longer, thus, increasing gas mileage and result in increased raise of rates.
- Roads
Use of tracks continues to be the most used mode of transport in Canada, California and Mexico. Trucks are efficient in transportation and enhancing economic prosperity. However, the current state of roads is wanting. The roads are in bad condition and have critical infrastructure needs. Road maintenance has been a great issue in these states which negative impacts the economy. California’s roads renewal and replacement has been underfunded for long and makes it to have some of the poorest roads and the condition continues to worsen. The population of California is likely to increase and thus posing a great challenge to the existing road condition. More transportation will be needed. However, if the condition will not have been improved there wills high demand to support infrastructure. The U.S economy is at risk of losing it GDP by $4 trillion if the roads are not repaired and put into the right standards.
- Conclusion
The infrastructure is greatly affecting impacting the supply chain negatively. However, the government is doing little to correct the issue. It has made efforts to raise money fuel taxes which have not changed the rates since 1993 (Schulz, 2013). The current tax on gasoline is estimated 18.4 cents while 23.4 cents is charged on diesel. There is need for robust strategies to deal with the issue. For instance, companies can be given the opportunity to contribute in making the infrastructure better as they utilize it to run their businesses. Raising the tax as requested by FedEx will help increase funds for infrastructure (Schulz, 2014). The government can establish infrastructure bank which will be responsible for repairs and maintenance of roads and bridges. The bank will leverage private investment. Giving out loans will accrue interests that will be utilized for infrastructure projects (Schulz, 2010). With sufficient funds, the roads and bridges will in the right condition hence enhance flow of supply chain.