Infrastructure goes unloved at U.S. conventions

By Emily Kaiser and Ed Stoddard - Analysis

ST. PAUL (Reuters) - Not far from the site of a deadly Minnesota bridge collapse, infrastructure investment was hardly mentioned when Republicans gathered to nominate Sen. John McCain for president.

It was a similar story at the Democratic National Convention last week in Denver where Sen. Barack Obama accepted his party's presidential nomination with a speech that spoke only in passing of rebuilding U.S. cities.

Both political parties acknowledge that modernizing transportation, power grids, air traffic control and other public services is vital but the task of paying for it all is falling increasingly to cities, states or the private sector rather than the U.S. federal government.

Municipal governments are struggling to meet existing obligations because the housing bust and weakening economy have hurt property and sales tax revenues, and the credit crisis has made borrowing costlier.

Many states are looking at selling or leasing highways, bridges or airports to fill budget holes.

"The real story is there's no money," said Norman Anderson, chief executive officer of CG/LA Infrastructure in Washington, which consults on infrastructure projects. "The federal budget is obligated to the tune of 70 to 75 percent at the start of every year. There's very little discretionary money available."

Anderson said infrastructure was not among the top five priorities for either candidate. That may be because it isn't first and foremost in voters' minds either, falling well behind wider economic worries and the Iraq war.

Even in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, where construction on the Interstate 35 bridge serves as a daily reminder of infrastructure needs, it wasn't the primary concern among several voters interviewed by Reuters.

"It's not my number one priority but it's up there," said Emily Jerve, 29, an agriculture research analyst based in the Twin Cities who said she was "leaning" toward voting for Democrats. "It's a concern for safety reasons."

On August 1 last year, the eight-lane bridge on Interstate 35 collapsed during rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring more than 100. The bridge had been labeled "structurally deficient" by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

WILLING BUT UNABLE

Florida Rep. John Mica, the highest-ranking Republican on the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, toured the bridge reconstruction on Wednesday and hailed it as a model for federal projects.

"It normally takes at least seven to eight years to undertake an infrastructure project of this magnitude, but the new I-35 bridge was contracted to be designed and completed in 437 days," he said.

Mica said following that pattern in other projects could dramatically lower costs. "This will be our goal in the next highway bill, which is scheduled for renewal in 2009," he said.

At the state level, there is no shortage of support for infrastructure from both ends of the political spectrum. Securing the money to pay for it is another story.