It seems whereever we travel these days, we run across an infrastructure project of one type or another. Examples of current projects in our area include the painting of the Hood River toll bridge, construction of Loop Road in the White Salmon area, water pipeline work along State Route 141 in the Husum area, and construction of a new Interstate 84 overpass in Hood River. Examples of local projects that have been completed during this construction season include White Salmon’s Loop Road waterline replacement project and reconstruction of a key route inside the Port of Klickitat’s Bingen business park. Also in the works — in conjunction with the decommissioning of Condit Dam — are reinforcement of the bridge over Northwestern Lake and relocation of White Salmon’s waterline from Buck Creek. Each of these projects represents a sizeable investment — in capital, brainpower and manpower. None of them, however, would have been undertaken had the owner of the infrastructure — in every case a political subdivision of government — not contracted with a private entity. The need for these types of projects has never been clearer. The American Society of Civil Engineers, in its 2009 “Report Card for America’s Infrastructure,” noted that 33 percent of America’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition and that 36 percent of major urban highways are congested. From a grading standpoint, the society gave America’s bridges a C, its roads a D-, its drinking water systems a D-, and its infrastructure as a whole a D. These barely passing grades, however, do not come as a surprise. What will be surprising is if Congress finally “gets it” — that the economy needs another booster shot — and whether it can constructively address and agree on a way to pay for $2.2 trillion worth of necessary infrastructure projects (as identified by the American Society of Civil Engineers) over a 5- to 10-year period that will improve on what our predecessors left us — roads, bridges, airports, railroads, water and wastewater works, ports, schools, hospitals, the electrical grid and so forth — and put Americans back to work, because when Americans work, America works. SB