[I_Like_Plants]

Yet another example

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/297647

[lawnchair]

You're not kidding there.

Check this price list:

Building a road in Florida.

It's a little cheaper in Kansas (I couldn't find such a nice price list), but calculating the budget on a dozen projects this year from the paper, this list is pretty close to accurate. That is to say, devastatingly expensive.

Like a waterworks, it doesn't matter how few people use it, age happens. A fifty year old road that's never been battered by more than Prius farts will still need rebuilding. The interstates around here? Seems like every fifth year or so.

I compared the traffic counts for some roads around here and amortized for a guess of how long they'd last before next repair. Came up with numbers between 10 to 20 cents per mile per vehicle driving down the road. At 42.4 cents gas tax per gallon (a dime more for diesel), that's less than even semis (at 5-8 mpg) are paying, let alone me in a Corolla paying less than 1.4 cents per mile. This is before visitor centers and heritage trolleys and bridges to nowhere. If the fleet average mpg goes up, the gaping budget hole will get even worse. And EVs? A different method of paying for driving privilege will have to come out.

So, yes, another piece of our infrastructure that won't withstand conservation.

[Tyler_JC]

And the mad dash begins.

Higher water rates lead to more water conservation leads to higher water rates.

And the winner is still he who lives most efficiently.

I don't see a problem here, I see the solution.

[128shot]

or they could be smart, take out a loan, and not raise rates, and instead pay it off over time?

[eastbay]

The American way of life will be a distant memory before too long. Infrastructure collapse will more and more become a regular news item as energy depletes and the economy unwinds. At some point all we'll be able to do is watch the crumbling because infrastructure collapse is a foregone conclusion and in a few years will be an item of very low priority.

There is really no solution for this other than for the fortunate few who can learn to get by on far less. Most of what Americans squander money and resources on is to try and fulfill illusory wants and desires rather than actual needs, so for them they'll face tremendous difficulty personally managing this collapse.

[gampy]

Much of the problems with the water works in Toronto have little to do with conservation, but are a symptom of sprawl. The GTA is a nightmare of surburban planning gone insane. Just like most cities in North America.

Of course it is going to be prohibitively expensive to maintain a vast network of pipes, roads, sewers, etc. when municipal councils allow developers to build homes in the middle of fucking no where.

Re-densification of urban areas, and higher density would alleviate a lot of the cost concerning infrastructure. I am a little baffled how cities could expect to maintain bedroom communities miles from anywhere.

If some developer wants to build McMansions outside the city centre, they should be paying for the roads, water and amenities. The suburbs really do get a free ride from the commercial real estate tax payers downtown. Although you see this mode of urban planning starting to change. Many cities are trying to increase development in their cores, and are trying to discourage sprawl. They know the deal. It's damn expensive to build roads, and water mains to outlying suburbs.