It's going to take a lot of work to update America's crumbling highways, bridges, and tunnels.
Curbed reports that president-elect Donald Trump recently released a proposal to privatize road building, creating a $137 billion tax credit for construction companies. The measure could lead to an influx of jobs.
Curbed takes an optimistic view, but says that $3.6 trillion is needed to repair roads, rails, pipes, and power grids. What's more, the plan doesn’t address improving public transit.
His privatization plan raises serious red flags; instead of using government funding, he’d tap private investors to build their own highways, who would charge tolls to recoup their investments. While the idea would save money initially, since the government wouldn’t fit the bill, it would cede control of vital public infrastructure to business interests.
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