The Highway Trust fund was set up to provide funding for America’s roads and bridges. It has been in place for over a half a century and overall it has done a fine job of building our highway system. However, once the politicians started dipping into the “highway” fund for other pet projects the finances of the fund were placed in jeopardy. Now it is basically broke like the rest of the government. In fact, it recently had to be bailed out by the general fund.

For example, over 20% of the trust fund spending goes toward serving only 5% of the nation’s rail passengers, three-quarters of whom are located in just seven metropolitan areas. But potentially worse are the funds that are diverted to unrelated  purposes, such as national parks and forest, bicycle trails, bureaucracy, urban revitalization, and historic preservation. Let the tax do the job for which it was intended.

More: The Highway Trust Fund is Not the Politician’s Piggy Bank

The White House offered to remove the obstacles to get a fast start on several projects in an effort to promote its jobs bill. While removing those obstacles on the selected projects is moving in the right direction it is not enough. When it takes years to obtain permits for projects it adds substantial delays to the projects as well as additional cost. As a taxpayer I’m tired of seeing our infrastructure costs increased because of bureaucratic red tape at the federal level. These added costs don’t benefit anyone because it’s merely a result of inflation passed on to taxpayers. In reality, we need to reduce the cost of our infrastructure, because capital is too precious.

More: Remove the Regulations and Red Tape on Infrastructure Projects

Everyone would love to have a project completed on time and have the lowest capital costs, the lowest life-cycle costs and high performance. Unfortunately, the low-bid award system doesn’t do that. In fact, that approach has created an environment where the construction industry is the only industry that hasn’t increased its productivity in more than 50 years. Worse, it has been estimated that there is between 30 and 40 percent waste in the construction process, maybe even more.

More: Scrap the Low-Bid Award Process

We are in the midst of a perfect storm. The government is basically broke at all levels. The infrastructure demands are nearly $2.5 trillion based on ASCE estimates. The option to do nothing doesn’t exist as it cost the average person more than $800 a year just sitting in traffic or repairs to his car from road damage. That one example illustrates the impacts of a declining infrastructure. All areas of infrastructure significantly affect everyone’s costs and our nation’s competitiveness.

More: Infrastructure Bank