SPECIAL REPORT (MyFoxBoston.com) -- Cracked. Crumbled. Corroded. Massachusetts highways, bridges and public transit need a facelift, and concern goes beyond the surface.
Just preserving it takes hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
"We as a society don't understand how valuable our infrastructure is," said engineer Tony Puntin. "One of our main goals is to educate the public about our infrastructure and the need to invest in our infrastructure to maintain our quality of life."
Are Massachusetts roads dangerous?
Puntin, who is with the Boston Society for Civil Engineers believes the cost of doing nothing is far greater.
One example? More than 5,000 bridges span Massachusetts. Figures from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation show 423 are structurally deficient.
"Does that mean dangerous?" FOX25's Kerry Kavanaugh asked.
"They're not unsafe, but they will be if they're not repaired," Puntin said.
It's not just bridges.
The BSCE rates 19 percent of the state's roadways in poor condition. Sixty four percent are mediocre to fair.
What does the aging infrastructure cost drivers?
It adds up for drivers, costing them an extra $478 dollars for year.
The deteriorating road conditions are blamed on a maintenance backlog, and some say not enough money to catch up.
"Well it's like any other thing, nothing is free," said Congressman Mike Capuano. "If people want a good infrastructure they have to pay for it."
Capuano points to the state and federal gas tax.
Americans pay 18.4 cents on the gallon. That's the same rate drivers have paid since 1992.
On top of that, Massachusetts drivers pay 24 cents per gallon. Massachusetts raised the state's gas tax from 21 cents in 2013
That money funds the highway trust fund, which has been running out of funds and Washington can't find a fix. But, Massachusetts residents have taken their discontent over rising gas tax straight to the polls, voting down any increases.
"I know no one likes paying taxes and neither do I, but at the same time, I like riding on decent roads, I like not sitting in traffic for an hour at a time," Capuano said.
Puntin says in 2013 the state set aside 600 million dollars a year for improvements, but it needs $1 billion annually to do all of the maintenance work.
Massachusetts trouble spots:
It ranges from simple fixes, like ones spotted at the Tobin Bridge, to major projects, like rehabbing the Longfellow Bridge over the Charles River, or replacing Boston's Long Island Bridge.
"Sometimes you can do down the road and you can see all of these vertical horizontal lines of brown," Puntin said,
FOX25 found the work piling up around the metro area and beyond.
The Morrisey Boulevard bridge over Dorchester Bay is cracked, with 65,000 cars still driving over it each day.
The intersection of 93 and 128, also known as the cloverleaf, has 250,000 cars pass through every day. The ramps weaving patterns make it a crash cluster.
And, the double-decker section of the Storrow Drive bridge in Back Bay has corroded steel beams, the pavement too thin. It was labeled "Worst Bridge in America" by Travel and Leisure Magazine in 2012.
Engineers like Puntin says it's all evidence of what's been taken for granted for too long.
“Whether it's the water, electricity, the damns that protects us, the pump stations, our country was built on our transportation network," he said.
Cox Media Group
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