The Pew Charitable Trusts asks Congress to invest in our National Parks that currently suffer from years of deferred maintenance By Brian Hoover, CMS
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he Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew) is an independent nonprofit organization that is working to raise awareness about the $12 billion repair backlog facing the National Park Service (NPS) and implement long-term solutions to address the challenge. In 2015, Pew launched the Restore America’s Parks initiative and is working with Congress and a broad array of national, regional, and local stakeholders to enact legislation that would direct dedicated annual federal funding to priority park repairs. The last time NPS received a major congressional investment for infrastructure and improvement was in the 1950s, under a program called Mission 66. Many of the facilities that were constructed or upgraded under that program have now fallen into disrepair. The National Park Service has now entered its second century, and many of the 419 sites and 62 national parks it manages are showing their age. Roads and bridges are crumbling; historic buildings and monuments are deteriorating; trails are rundown; and water, sewer, and electrical systems are outdated and sometimes unsafe. Federal funding has proved to be unreliable and the agency is struggling to keep pace with the repairs, estimated to now be in excess of $12 billion. NPS maintains around 5,500 miles of paved roads ($4.3 billion deferred), and they are responsible for another 28,000 buildings ($2.2 billion deferred), including visitor 18
centers, employee housing, historic buildings, and maintenance sheds. Parking lots are in disrepair with more than $1 billion in deferred maintenance, while the NPS’ 1,700 road bridges have had nearly the same dollar amount deferred. The list continues with long needed repairs for marinas, landscaping, trails, water systems, electrical systems, monuments and so much more. So, what is deferred maintenance and exactly what is being done about it and by whom? Simply put, deferred maintenance is work that has not been completed at required intervals to ensure acceptable facility and infrastructure conditions. Maintenance work is typically considered deferred if it is delayed for a year or longer. The jobs and benefits that would result from fully funding NPS’ deferred maintenance include construction workers repairing roads, preservation
The National Park Service maintains around 5,500 miles of paved roads.
experts restoring deteriorating historic sites, and engineers overhauling outdated sewer, water, and fire prevention systems. A recent poll commissioned by Pew shows that 82 percent of Americans want Congress to pass legislation—now pending—to invest up to $1.3 billion per year over five years to address these overdue repairs. That percentage is up from a similar Pew-commissioned telephone poll in November 2018, which found that 76 percent of Americans supported legislation to address the maintenance backlog. The most recent survey, conducted in June 2019 by the bipartisan research team of New Bridge Strategy and Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, revealed strong support for the
California Asphalt Magazine • 2020 Pavement Preservation Issue
