Much of it goes back I think to our politics. Have you ever seen a ribbon cutting ceremony for the completion of a repaving project? It is the new and sexy endeavor that gets the attention. Preventing street lights from rusting out is not a priority when compared to other needs in the community.
If we expect to improve our infrastructure's systems we must first change our thinking about the value of maintenance over building new things that we will immediately neglect. In the military it was all about PM (preventive maintenance). Taking care of the equipment so that when your life depended on it--it will function. The United States Army had a huge wake-up call back in 1962 when military units were ordered to redeploy to prepare for an invasion of Cuba. Much of the nation's military equipment (in the Army anyway) was inoperative and the failure to maintain a readiness posture was not revealed until the units were told to "move" and they could not do so.
We have many problems that are difficult to solve as a nation. The solutions are not immediately evident and which course of action to take is debated long and hard. In the case of failing infrastructure we do not have that conundrum. It is clear what we need to do--we just need the will power to do it.
