REFRAMING AMERICA'S INFRASTRUCTURE

A lawyer’s case for the centrality of infrastructure to the future of the United States.

As an attorney who specializes in construction defects and litigation against contractors and designers, Gravely is intimately familiar with the poor state of American infrastructure, which includes roads, buildings, electrical grids, sewage systems, and much more. In this, his debut book, he describes in painstaking detail how “our most essential resources have reached the end of their operable life” and are “failing without warning” at an increasingly alarming rate. Moreover, much of our infrastructure, built during the post–World War II economic boom, has failed to keep up with technological innovations, threatening the nation’s economy and security. The book’s first section provides a historical overview of the centrality of infrastructure to the health of civilizations. Investment in infrastructure is the common thread that connects ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia to 20th-century Western superpowers, the author notes. Beyond meeting the pragmatic needs of governments and their citizens, infrastructure inspires and even “defines us,” Gravely asserts, as projects such as the Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Empire State Building, and the Erie Canal have become part of the nation’s identity. However, as the book’s second section details—with an unnerving number of specific examples—the country’s “cheap” and “fast” approach to infrastructure has led to “busted & rusted” bridges, overloaded and eroded dams and waterway locks, unhealthy drinking water, and shoddily constructed, uninspiring public schools and other buildings. After highlighting this near-dystopian state of affairs, the book’s final section looks at potential solutions.

Eschewing a partisan approach to infrastructure, the book blames both Republicans and Democrats at various points for failures to address problems head-on. The author dismisses China’s authoritarian approach to infrastructure projects—such as forcing people off of their land—but does discuss “what we can learn” from the country’s massive investments, which have created architectural wonders. The book is careful to emphasize that natural resources are also part of infrastructure and thus should be protected from unscrupulous development and extraction. The private sector, including Elon Musk’s vision of Starbase, Texas, is heralded as a viable path to innovative development that could bypass congressional stalemates in Washington. Overall, the book is written in the approachable, savvy language of a seasoned lawyer, expertly balancing readability with technical discussions of building and construction codes. With more than 1,000 footnotes, this well-researched book effectively makes its case by inundating readers with numerous examples of old, decrepit, or cheaply built infrastructure networks. It’s an engaging read, to be sure. However, it attempts to do more than a single book comfortably can, as it attempts not only to document America’s failed infrastructure, but also to provide readers with a narrative of infrastructure development throughout history as well as policy ideas for the future. Although each part stands well on its own, the three sections combined may overwhelm readers. Still, the book more than succeeds in making its argument that “the future of America depends on the decisions we make today.”

A thoroughly researched, if sometimes-daunting, technical survey.