Pols Ponder Infrastructure

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed met with President Obama Monday to discuss the economic impact of infrastructure investment on states and local communities.

Reed and others at the meeting — including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Transportation Secretary Ray ­LaHood, and several governors — discussed the nation’s transportation infrastructure and the challenge of improving it, and the short- and long-term economic impact of such investments.

“Infrastructure projects are the fastest route to the creation of well-paying jobs and an investment that moves the nation and the city of Atlanta  forward,” Reed said in a statement. “There is no better use of our federal resources domestically than investing in the infrastructure of our cities and states.”

Reed said Atlanta is no different from most American municipalities that need immediate infrastructure investment. Atlanta needs an estimated $100 million per year just to maintain current ­infrastructure, including road resurfacing, replacing bridges, and modernizing traffic signals and facilities.

“The infrastructure backlog has built up over several decades of inadequate investment,” Reed said. “We must move the city of Atlanta’s roads, bridges, and transportation network into the 21st century. At the same time, these much-needed projects will spur economic growth by putting Atlantans back to work.”

Reed’s meeting came the same day Obama restated his commitment to a $500 billion plan to update the nation’s roads, rails, and airports to create jobs. The proposal would include a $50 billion infrastructure bank to prioritize projects of national importance leveraged with private, state and local funds.

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